The Poet and the Pendulum
by Twilight Zephyr
Summary: It's not always fair when life throws you twists, but sometimes those twists can give you a certainty that you can't find anywhere else. Jascob SLASH
1. I White Lands of Empathica

**Notes:** I lost the original draft of this. This is the birthday present for **roadsidefury** who has practically taken over as my muse for pretty much the entire _Poison_ story. If it wasn't for her, I doubt that it would have gotten this far. So this is for her. Happy belated birthday!  
**Title:** The Poet and the Pendulum  
**Parts:** Part I [ White Lands of Empathica ]  
**Rating:** pg  
**Pairing:** Jasper/Jacob  
**Words:** 2 711 words  
**Disclaimer:** The _Twilight_ series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own the characters or anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise.

**White Lands of Empathica**

I think that I really started wondering about whatever weird place it was that my life was heading by the time that Bella's high school life ended, and mine was nearly over too. Though, in a way, I guess I am a little lucky; not everyone gets to know what their lives are going to be like with the certainty that I do. Still, with the way that it came about, I think it could have been a little... well, **_smoother_**.

See, it all started waaaay back just a few months after the blood sucker and his family came back to Forks after their sudden departure earlier in the year. A departure which left my best friend, and the girl that I'd fallen for, closely resembling a zombie; to the point where you'd expect her to jump at you and try to eat you alive.

Sound freakishly like a video game? You couldn't be closer to the source; my life's been a lot like a video game, or even a supernatural thriller, for a while now. Despite that being considered 'fun' or 'cool' it was more or less just a pain in the ass. And that's truth.

To me, when that bastard blood sucker returned, it was obvious that he was keeping her locked up and preventing her from going anywhere. I refused to answer or respond to any of her calls, because I didn't want to have to know or hear about how fucking 'perfect' her leech boyfriend was; nor did I want to hear about how much **_better_** she was now that he was back. I didn't think that I was strong enough; that I could whether knowing that I wasn't what she needed or wanted, that I couldn't ever be what she needed.

It wasn't fair.

And it hurt more then I'd probably ever admit. But there was also that little niggling part of me that kept telling me that I should be happy for her, because no matter what he'd done to her; that was something she had to deal with. And she was happy now, even I couldn't deny that. At least... I hoped she was.

That didn't stop me from being completely irrational with trying to separate them. The hurt was strong, and I couldn't think through my actions, or their consequences. Which was why her words cut me deep; I had always thought that it was **_his_** fault that she was locked away, when it really wasn't. And I'd know that is had to be so, considering that I knew how determined she could be. Not to mention stupid sometimes.

Still there was that niggling voice in the back of my head that kept telling me that something was wrong with that picture. It went even further, though, and told me that something was wrong with the future that **_I_** wanted.

But that didn't change anything, at least, I didn't want it too.

My first 'meeting' with the leech didn't go as I'd hoped. Things just sort of fell to pieces, and I wound up leaving feeling very, very bad about myself. Maybe not answering Bella's calls had been a stupid idea after all, because I really hadn't thought through everything and had wound up with half-assed conclusions. As well, everything about it left a bad taste in my mouth.

I didn't see Bella again until this one day when I showed up at her school; there were a few details that I was being pushed into reminding the leeches of...

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

Days that turn your entire life as you know it on its head are usually the ones that start out completely normal, and then go downhill from there. I think that should have sent the first warning sign off in my head that something was going to derail my life and send my flying headlong into something that I would probably not want any part of. Well, at least if I was in my right mind.

But it's really hard to keep that 'right mind' when the mythical is real.

I'd thought that meeting Bella at her school would be a good idea, since there it was a place where that blood sucking bastard couldn't show his true colors. And it wasn't completely my idea, Sam was worried that I would purposely get into a fight with the leech, and that wouldn't do too well for the treaty since I'd be the one provoking him; if he did kill me, which even I had to doubt, it would be on us and not them. I was supposed to know better.

Though, do you know how hard it is to stand being in a school? Especially when your sense of smell is much, much stronger then a human's? It's fucking terrible! Girls have this thing where they feel that they have to be swimming in perfume, and it's never that good of stuff too! It's choking; I always feel like gagging when I have to be anywhere near those kind of people.

And humans don't usually have a very pleasant smell.

While I waited for the leech and Bella, I occupied myself with sorting through the different scents that permeated the area that I was in. It wasn't a lot of fun, and I wound up with the lingering bad after smell of a lot of bad perfume; but there was a little something mixed in there that made it all completely worth it. To my instincts at least.

At first, I wasn't too sure what it was about that particular scent that caught my attention. It was sweet, but not sickly so like the blood sucker's (their scents would burn my nose, and it's not pleasant at all), but it was still a very nice pleasant sort of sweet. Vanilla. I took a deeper breath to get a better feel of the scent, wondering if it was tied to another smell, but I couldn't scent much else to do with that particular scent but a bit of the lingering smell of the woods. That was explainable; it meant that the person who's scent it was had recently been out in the forest.

That annoying little voice in the back of my head urged me to follow that scent, to find whoever it belonged to and breathe it in deeply so that it was all I would ever smell again. I resisted the urge with a disgruntled expression and shoved it to the back of my mind for the time being; there'd be more time to think about that scent later. I had a job to do.

By the time Bella and her leech had found me, I'd already amassed quite an audience. A crowd of Bella's fellow students had formed a bit of a ring around myself, and when those two arrived, around them as well. I could tell that they were all itching for there to be a fight, but something kept them back from openly clamoring for it. Their scents were burning in my nose, and I felt very uncomfortable suddenly.

I knew that the leech had read my mind the moment he growled low, settling into a protective stance between myself and Bella; like he didn't trust me being able to keep her safe.

"And with good reason," he hissed out when he read that thought. I huffed and crossed my arms, giving him a mindful. "I would really prefer if you kept your opinions to yourself."

"Tch," I responded; I was already uncomfortable enough with how close he was too me. "Sam thought that you and your family would like to know that the foreign leech was back while you were all out hunting. She got away, though, we think that she came down this way to scout out some of the territory."

That seemed to surprise him, his eyes took on a distant hue for a moment, "... she's circling back?"

"Hell if I know."

He shook his head, as if to clear it. And Bella said, "What else did you come here to say Jake?"

I snorted, "Your leech and his family wanted our help, and I got voted as messenger."

"Jake..." she murmured. I refused to be swayed by her pleading; I knew this was hurting her, but it really couldn't have been helped. The two of us were mortal enemies; we're not supposed to get along. "can you at least try to be a little nicer? Edward is trying to be polite, you know. You could put in some effort too, I know that you can."

I wrinkled my nose, "I'm not trying to kill him, that's my best effort. His scent burns my nose."

"You're not exactly floral yourself mutt." Bella glared at the both of us.

"That's not helping," she replied acidly. "Please you two, we're in public! Try to behave, not everyone knows about this secret feud between vampires and werewolves; they're not real to them! So please try and act normal!"

Bella was still trying to pry more space between myself and her leech when we were each looking like we were going to screw keeping our peace and just duke it out right there. It wouldn't be constructive in the least. but when you put a werewolf and and a leech in close quarters, then the results aren't going to be very pretty; or pleasant.

At that moment, the tiniest leech was at Bella's side. She didn't look at me but looked straight at Bella's leech, her eyes hard, "Don't Edward." I was again bowled over when she turned to me, sending waves of that faint scent of vanilla which I had smelled earlier. It wasn't her scent, I wrinkled my nose at how painfully sweet her scent was, but had definitely saturated through her clothes and clung to her; whoever's scent it was, she had been close to them.

"Tomorrow," she murmured so that only the three of us could hear it. "Tomorrow night, four AM. We'll be holding a strategy meeting about what we are going to do about Victoria and the newborns. Both of you, remember that neither of you are the enemy."

When the pixie vampire turned away, the scent of vanilla smacking me about once again, the blood sucker grinned to which I gave him a dark glare and a low growl. Whatever was going through his head, though, didn't bode well for me. I was sure of that much, but I really didn't have an idea of what it was that he was thinking of. My thoughts had tipped him off to something; he knew something that I didn't.

As he pulled away, he hissed, "Be very careful about where you step, pup." The tiny vampire gave a small smile as she turned away with Bella. Both of the leeches knew something that I didn't, and I didn't think that whatever was running through their heads had anything good in store for me.

I felt my heart sink.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

'_Well? How did it go?_' I didn't want to answer Embry, but he already knew the answer before he even asked the question. Now it was more of a courtesy, none of us actually needed to ask in order to know how each others' days had gone. Embry was just trying to make me feel better... though I didn't really know why I was feeling down in the first place.

And that smell of vanilla still hadn't left me.

Embry snorted, '_Quit thinking about that Jake! You're making me hungry!_'

I snorted, '_You're always hungry. And I'm still confused about that scent and why it was on that leech; it wasn't her scent, and I didn't recognize it from any of the humans that were around. I didn't know the scent either._'

The two of us ran in silence, and then I felt the rest of the pack join us. News was passed around quickly, and soon everyone knew about my fascination with the scent and the mystery person who it belonged to. Leah was the one who immediately sank her teeth into the news while everyone else seemed much more preoccupied with the strategy meeting that would be happening tomorrow night.

'_Aww, ickle Jakey-poo found a nice new scent? Which little human girl is it this time? She gonna leave you for a leech too?_'

'_Shut up Leah!_'

'_Both of you be quiet!_' Sam ordered; by this time we'd all settled down into a half-circle with Sam facing all of us. I growled at Leah; she might still be horribly bitter and determined to make the rest of us miserable, but that didn't mean that the rest of us deserved to be treated that way. '_Anyways, we need to think about what we are going to do tomorrow._'

'_We might not get along with them,_' Embry offered, '_but we do share a common enemy in this case. We don't know how to fight these newborns, but letting them come and run rampant here isn't probably a good idea. Though none of us like it, we're gonna have to trust them and fight alongside them._'

Sam mulled that one for over for a while, but all of us could tell what his decision was before he spoke next.

'_Embry's right, and that blond leech, the leader, he makes a very good point. This cat-like leech is obviously planning something and all of these 'visits' that she's been making all fit with a scouting mission; she's trying to get more familiar with the territory and any threats that might be here. But we do have the element of surprise in that she won't be expecting us to cooperate with the Cullens because she did witness our animosity towards them._'

Leah snorted, clearly angry, '_Oh? We're going to cooperate with them?! Those... those bloodsucking monsters?!_'

All of us growled at her, and Sam barked, '_Leah! You will not challenge decisions made by this pack. And for the moment, we will be cooperating with the Cullens; if only until this danger is dealt with._'

With that, the decision was made; we would be meeting the leeches tomorrow night in order to learn about how we would deal with the newborns. It still left me with that one unexplained issue of the scent that wouldn't leave me alone.

It wasn't until the meeting was over, when Quil, Embry, and I were sitting in my house's family room with the TV on that they started offering me some advice on what the whole 'scent' thing meant. Quil's opinion was probably the most useful.

"I'd say you've found the one you're gonna imprint on."

"What?!"

Quil nodded, snagging his bottle of pop off the coffee table; they'd taken the couch and I was sitting on the floor in front of it.

"Yeah, I mean, haven't you noticed from Jared, Sam, and I? You both should know that the ones we've imprinted on, to us at least, that person's scent is the most desirable thing that you'll ever smell. Jake, you were thinking about it; the fact that it wouldn't leave you alone probably means that whoever has the scent is the one who you're supposed to be with."

I stared at the floor, "Yeah. Right."

"Jake, you shouldn't be so hung up over Bella. I mean, even you have to know that by now she's made her choice and she isn't going to be changing her mind any time soon. This could be, you know, just fate telling you that it's just not meant to be," Embry muttered; I could tell that he was being careful. The whole issue with Bella could prove to be a minefield with me, even now.

"So? Doesn't mean that I have to like it."

Quil shrugged, "You don't have to like it now, but you won't be getting all that much of choice about it. And it's very hard to hate, or even dislike the one you imprint on Jake. You know that."

I knew that, I knew that when I eventually did imprint that I probably wouldn't be thinking all that much with my rational brain. I'd learned through the others who had imprinted that the moment they did was one of those moments where the entire world just seemed right. You couldn't think straight and all that mattered to you was **_them_**; it was a high that was very hard to come down from.

But it was hard, even for me, to believe that my life could change so drastically over the course of just a little over a twenty-four hour period.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

This is shorter then I would have liked for anything that I write that isn't a one-shot. But this isn't too bad I don't think for the first part in a five part series. I'm doing a lot of writing (surprisingly I'm cramming as much as I can on New Year's Eve), so I'm hoping that I can have the second part of this up very quickly. Well, this is part one of the five part multi-chap that I am writing for Jen.

Now, all that I have left are my presents for my best friend and one of my other very close friends. And that crack!pairing fic that I promised another friend in exchange, she gives me pocky for Christmas; but that's when I get back since I'm not even in town at the moment.

Enjoyed? Please leave me a nice review.

Twilight.


	2. II how i hate what i have become

**Notes:** Started the second part almost immediately after I finished the very first part of this belated birthday/Christmas present for my acting muse for Poison. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about updating this since I still have other things to finish, which includes Poison.  
**Parts:** Part II [ how i hate what i have become ]  
**Rating:** pg13  
**Pairing:** Jasper/Jacob  
**Words:** 3 229 words  
**Disclaimer:** The _Twilight_ series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own the characters or anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise.

**. how i hate what i have become .**

Oddly enough, I found myself getting anxious for the next day to come. I had no idea why, but that weird feeling in my gut kept telling me that something was going to change; though, another one of my instincts told me that it wasn't going to be a bad one. Something about that made me feel a little uneasy.

School dragged, and I was impatient as I tapped my pencil on the desk and stared aimlessly out the window. I wasn't even making an effort to even try to make it look like I was paying attention; but my English teacher didn't even notice. There are advantages to sitting in the back corner of the classroom and being a pretty good student; I was somehow managing to keep up with all of my classes and fulfill all my responsibilities as a member of the pack.

When the bell finally rang, I was quick to pack up and shove all of my stuff into my backpack and then I tore out of there. Something almost like anxiety had settled in my stomach, and I could quite shake it; no matter what I thought of. And that feeling persisted as I took off out of school like a bat out of hell and headed straight home to dump my stuff, do a little homework, and hopefully cram in a little sleep. If I was going to be staying up until four AM, then I wanted to be well rested.

Especially when in the company of seven leeches.

It's better to be safe then sorry, after all. And besides that, I was beyond exhaustion by that point. Well, tomorrow was a Saturday, maybe Sam would let us crash after this strategy meeting tonight? We'd all need to be as well-rested and strong as possible when we faced these newborns down; plus, we had to be on guard in case that one cat-like leech decided that she'd like to make another visit.

Something about her really set me off, and I wasn't too sure that it was entirely about Bella either.

I dumped my backpack on a conveniently empty kitchen chair, and then went and started raiding the fridge. There wasn't much in there, which meant that I'd probably have to go shopping tomorrow; something that I wasn't at all very happy about. It was hard enough for me to keep up with everything that I was juggling at the moment, and add on that I had my dad to take care of, and I was pretty much straining to keep up with doing what I could for him. Sue had basically taken over caring for my dad, especially after Harry's passing; I got the feeling that it was giving her something to take her mind off of the pain.

Nonetheless, I was still incredibly grateful to her for taking care of Billy for me, and looking after the house too. This gave me a little more time for taking care of all of the essentials that I was now being responsible for; like protecting our tribe from the threat of leeches, and keeping myself in school.

I managed to scrape together a decently sized snack, and in werewolf terms that means it was enough for a meal for a single person. Then proceeded to down the food just as quickly before I grabbed the cordless phone off the cradle and heading to my tiny room.

All I had in my room was a bed which took up the most space, a night stand, and a desk with its chair; my small closet was built into the wall. And that was really it for what was in my room, there was a few pictures there, of my family, but it was pretty bare. I didn't spend as much time here as I had when I was younger, so it lacked the personal touches. Though I didn't really care. I dropped the phone onto my night stand before I flopped into bed.

I was asleep moments after my head hit the pillow.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

The alarm was too loud when it went off several hours later, and it took me a few tries to actually smack the right button in order to get it to shut up. Grumbling, I hauled myself out of bed and stretched; trying to get all the kinks out of my still half-asleep and stiff body. With a soft groan, I rolled my shoulders once before heading to the bathroom.

I splashed some ice cold water on my face to wake myself up further before going back to my room. Throwing my clothes onto the bed, I slid open my window and hauled myself onto the sill, the cool evening air doing things to my naked body that I would prefer not to mention; even though my body temperature was much too hot to be normal.

Launching myself off the sill, I phased midair and landed on the ground with what I liked to think of as a graceful 'thud', before taking off in the direction of our pack's rendezvous point. Sam wanted us to group up before we headed off to meet the leech coven, and I saw absolutely no problem with this.

As I raced towards the spot, I felt the minds of the rest of my pack family join me.

Leah was as bitter and pissed off as she'd been earlier, which wasn't too much of a surprise (the girl's always bitter; and she does blame the vampires for how her life's turned out). Paul was pretty much in agreement with Leah over our cooperation with the leeches, but we all knew that neither of them would ever go against Sam. Quil, Embry, and Jared were very neutral about the entire thing; they viewed it as necessary, though they weren't too fond of the idea themselves. I got that it had to do with the smell.

On the other hand, Seth was the exact opposite of everyone else. The kid was actually looking **_forward_** to getting to work with the leeches. But then again, Seth's always been that odd one out; even with all of the negativity that he got from his parents and the elders of the tribe about how the vampires are evil and our mortal enemies, he'd never thought that they could actually be that bad. The kid never ceases to surprise any of us.

Then there was Sam. He didn't like this idea anymore then the rest of us, but as the Alpha, he had to do what was best for the pack and for the rest of the humans who made this area their home. He recognized that we didn't quite know what we were dealing with, both in what they were exactly and numbers, and that we couldn't risk heading this off on our own. Nor could we let the vampires handle this all by themselves, because if they were overwhelmed, then it didn't bode well for us.

'_Good, we're all here. Let's go, and remember, we're cooperating with them; I'm expecting that none of you will make an idiot out of yourselves or jeopardize this. There are a lot of lives that are counting on this little truce and pact of ours._'

There were various replies of agreement; the downright rude, '_Yeah fucking right_', coming from Paul. Leah just shrugged the whole thing off with a '_Whatever_'.

And then, we were racing through the trees after Sam; racing towards the agreed meeting point where we'd be meeting the full coven for the very first time. Seth's excitement was catching, and most of us lost our trepidation and instead started to feel just a little bit better about the entire thing. Though there was still that niggling in the backs of most of our minds that reminded us that we didn't like the idea of cooperating with leeches all that much.

I remembered Bella telling me that the vampires used the field we were heading to to play baseball, and how they could only play during a thunderstorm for various reasons. The pack had gotten a real laugh out of that; somethings I didn't like them digging up, but everything was laid up to bear within the pack, and some of us (Leah) took advantage of that at every turn.

We easily reached the outskirts of the clearing within minutes, and I could hear the leeches now. Bella's was saying something to the others.

"Looks like they were holding some information back."

'_We're not phasing out of our wolf forms, Cullen, you'd better be willing to act as an interpreter,_' Sam called; knowing that the one particular leech could perfectly well hear exactly what was running through our minds right at that moment.

Slowly, we emerged from the woods, arranged so that Sam was at the forefront, with the rest of us arranged in a loose triangular formation behind him. The bronze-haired leech rolled his eyes, and I noticed that an extremely tired looking Bella was at his side. She looked right at me and smiled.

'_Don't get caught up by the leech lover, or you might wind up dead,_' Leah cut when she noticed the slight swell of my heart. I growled at her.

'_Fuck off Leah._'

The obvious leader of the coven stepped forward as Bella's leech gave a tiny incline of his head to Sam; he would act as our 'voice' until we trusted them just a tiny bit more.

"I'd like to thank you for coming," the tall, blond vampire greeted us; unlike what I'd grown used to or imagined when it came down to a leech coven leader, it wasn't this. He was tall, yes, but he didn't seem intimidating. His voice wasn't very loud, but it conveyed order and... dare I say **_compassion_**. "My name is Carlisle Cullen, and this is my family."

"_We would like to thank you as well for telling us about this threat,_" the mind-reader recited just as Sam spoke it; and as he spoke, his voice sounded different, almost like it had inflections of Sam's own voice in there. It was a bit of a surreal sound. "_How many are there?_"

It was the tiny leech who I had seen the day before who spoke up this time, "There's twenty-one right now, but their numbers are decreasing."

"_Decreasing?_"

"Newborns fight amongst themselves, they're very strong and volatile; especially during their first year of their new 'life'," the tiny leech continued. It was obvious that she was explaining all of this for our benefit. "They're slaves to the thirst and cannot control themselves well, they'll be fighting and killing each other to compete for blood and because they cannot fully control the strength that they now possess."

I dimly noticed that the scent of vanilla that I'd noticed the day before was much, much stronger here. I missed the tiny curl of the tiny leech's lips.

"_So there will be less when they arrive here?_"

"Yes. I believe that there will be about nineteen, as that's where it stands now that I can see, but the number fluctuates from day to day, so I won't actually be one hundred percent sure until very close to when they come."

"_And when will that be?_"

"A week."

Just one week until we would be facing down the latest threat to our lives and those who made the area around Forks and La Push their home. There was no way that we could lose, there was just way too much at stake for us to even consider it.

"_Where will be begin?_"

The leader took the stage again, "My son Jasper has experience with newborns, he'll be teaching us how to properly fight and destroy them."

Right about now is when my life went straight to hell.

The others probably knew it before I did, but right at the moment when the blond leader stepped aside, I finally got a good look at the last member of their coven.

And the entire world just seemed to fall away.

I'd seen imprinting through the others' eyes, but experiencing it yourself is completely different from seeing it and feeling it through the memories of someone else. For one thing, it's one hell of a lot more potent when it's **_you_** who is imprinting. After all, it's impossible to feel the complex, deep, and often very passionate emotions that tie you to the one who you imprint on.

This was what I was feeling now; nothing else mattered, everything else had fallen away and all I could see was _**him**_.

Bella had always talked about her leech as being the personification of perfection, or a God in the flesh, but I had to disagree with her here. All of them were beautiful, yes, even we had to grudgingly admit that, but this one... this one took the cake. And the table it was sitting on. And well, why not take the entire course?

He was tall, not as tall as the brawny one or the leader, but he had a much more slender build then any of the other vampires there. That doesn't mean that he was a scrawny weak-looking thing, the muscle was there, most definitely (incredibly well-defined too). But it was much more subtle then the others. I couldn't help it but let my eyes rake over him, trying to take everything in and memorize every little facet of him.

The wind picked up then, shifting, and I got a nose full of that delicious vanilla scent that had been nagging at me ever since I had first caught it yesterday. Only now I could put a face to it, a name too a little voice inside my head was saying; but it largely went ignored.

His blond hair ruffled a little in the wind, and his dark gold eyes were roving over us, barely pausing on me before he returned his eyes to Sam. My heart gave a trill when those eyes settled onto me, and everything just seemed very right with the world right at that moment.

That is, until Leah decided to be her typical bitchy self and completely ruin my moment.

'_Traitor._'

My reverie was completely shattered at that moment, and I felt not only several pairs of eyes from my pack members on me (each with some form of horrified revulsion at what had just happened), but also one pair of chocolate brown, and two pairs of gold. I couldn't raise my head to meet any of their eyes, and I instead stared very intently at the ground between my paws.

'_Shut up Leah, you know you can't help who you imprint on._'

I was suddenly very, very glad that Seth at least didn't care for the blood feud between vampires and werewolves, because he was the only one who jumped up to defend me. But even that couldn't completely make me feel better about what was going on inside of me.

Parts of me were ecstatic, another was pissed off and telling me that I should be disgusted and horrified with myself, and the last part (and this one was the strongest) was this huge feeling of being very confused. The confusion won out in the end.

Very suddenly I was on my feet, and with a hurried, '_Fill me in later_', I was racing away from the clearing, from the one I'd imprinted on, and my second family. Plunging myself into the woods I very dimly heard Seth replying that he would before I tuned them all out and just ran.

Desperately, I needed time to myself to think. And I needed to think without other people poking around in my head. Almost as soon as I saw my home, I was already phasing back. It was a relief to be back as myself, and I easily managed to slip inside the house, sneaking my way back to my bedroom; being extra careful so that I wouldn't wake Billy.

Carefully, I locked my bedroom door, hesitated for a moment, before I then pushed the desk up against it and under the knob. I wanted to be alone; and I wanted to be alone for a very long time.

My clothes that lay strewn around the room were thrown towards the laundry basket, though they didn't make it in, and I grabbed a pair of sweats before throwing myself onto the bed. Pulling my pillow to me in a very childish gesture, I hugged it to me; my mind tormenting me with images and smells that I didn't need right then.

I hated myself. I'd just imprinted on my mortal enemy.

And to make that worse, it was a guy.

Never before had I doubted my own sexuality, but this... this made me doubt every single thought that I had ever had in regards to anyone who I had anything remotely resembling feelings for. This had placed Bella out of my reach forever, not that she hadn't been in it before, but now I had absolutely no grounds for how I felt about her. True, I still loved her, but everything had been shifted now.

Now I couldn't love her anymore in the same way that I had been so sure that I had. Bella was the first person who I had fallen in love with, and now I was wondering if it had even been that type of love in the first place. I'd had no reference points to go from, and now... Now I was just being completely overwhelmed with everything.

I hadn't even realized that the tears had formed in my eyes and were spilling over.

With Bella, there hadn't been this... this **_passionate_** yearning, this heart-stopping feeling that had come over me when those amber eyes had been on me. When Bella had looked at me, there'd been a soft swell, nothing too big. Nothing like this. It actually felt like my entire being was on fire and there was no way that I could put it out on my own. This scared me, feeling like this; feeling so deeply and so quickly too, that I wondered if it could possibly be more then just a simple imprint.

_Everyone experiences imprinting in a different manner, depending on the one you imprint on._

So why me? Why was I the one who was saddled with this complex and intense feeling? Was I being driven to an extreme because the one who was so destined to be intertwined with me born of the race which my kind despised? I didn't know the answer to any of those questions, and they continued to swirl around in my head; refusing to let me fall into oblivion.

My mind was being tormented, with tantalizing pictures, images, sensations of what he could do to me. And I embraced them, even though the part of me who was clinging so desperately to what I knew in this twisted world, was trying to reject them. My heart was thudding wildly in my chest; and I could feel my breathing raggedly tearing itself from my chest as I continued to suppress my sobs.

I didn't even know why I was crying.

But the part of me that had imprinted, that lonely and abandoned part of me that longed so desperately to be loved, was calling out; and I was finding it harder and hard to resist that siren call that had been spun. Eventually, I gave myself over to the thoughts, the fantasies, the feelings; and again, my being felt like it was on fire, but in one of the worst and most painful of ways.

Unconsciously, I was calling out to him.

No sleep came to me that night. It wasn't the last sleepless night.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

I just managed to squeeze this chapter out. And it's now just a little past three in the morning; I think that I'll go to bed now. I'm so sorry that there haven't been updates from me for a while, but it's January, and that means that it's time for those nasty things known as finals. I've been cramming and studying my ass off because my Biology 20AP final is this Thursday, and I want to do well on it. Sorry guys, but there won't be a quick update to this or to Poison until sometime after Thursday. Monday, though, is my Chem exam, so I'll be spending Friday and the weekend studying for that too.

I'll try and squeeze in some time for writing, like I did here. I'm going to bed now, please leave me a review or comment. Ugh, I have a stupid band playing test tomorrow... don't wanna have to play the evil run of doom...

Twilight.


	3. Interlude I :: lost in the darkness

**Notes:** Um, originally I had planned that this story would ONLY be five chapters long to correspond with the five parts to the song on which it was based. Unfortunately, since I decided that I'd write it in the first-person, I realized that there was a lack of seeing things from Jazz's point of view, which is what brought this. The 'Interlude' portions of the story will be told from Jasper's point of view (I am continuing with the first-person). This one is the first, and they will appear at random intervals during the story.  
**Parts:** Interlude I [ lost in the darkness ]  
**Rating:** pg13  
**Pairing:** Jasper/Jacob  
**Words:** 3 295 words  
**Disclaimer:** The _Twilight_ series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own the characters or anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise.

**Interlude I  
. lost in the darkness .**

I wasn't completely comfortable with working with dogs of all things, but from a purely military and strategical standpoint, it was a good idea. Also, it gave us a very nice advantage over when those newborns and their 'leader' decided to make their appearance. But that was me thinking about this from a purely tactical standpoint; I couldn't afford any personal reservations on them or their race.

My duty, something that I prided myself on, was my ability to be objective in any situation.

Though, even I felt a little unease in the hours approaching our meeting with the wolves. Alice was keeping her distance from me, and I felt something that felt oddly like resignation coming from her in waves with a feeling of almost... I think it might have been relief, but mixed in their with, oddly enough, joy as well. Not a lot was making sense.

To occupy myself, while Carlisle lectured Rosalie to behave herself, I thought of everything that I had learned in the near-century which I'd spent in Maria's service. Memories that should have been left undisturbed were tormenting me on the edge of my conscience, showing me things that I'd done. I had to grit my teeth, and I had to shove them back behind the dam I'd created to keep them from my mind.

Thinking about battle plans, tactics, and experience kept me largely from having to sink back into those dark times where my undead life had been nothing but blood, death, and fighting to stay alive.

"Tonight, everything is going to change."

Alice had startled me out of my thoughts, and I felt a twinge of guilt that I hadn't noticed her when she'd come in. My head snapped around to look at her; she'd opened the large windows which led out onto the balcony that wrapped around the back of the house. Her eyes were staring up at the sky, and she seemed distant; almost as if she was talking to herself, and not to me at all.

"What do you mean Alice? Did you see something?" Her head snapped around suddenly, and there was a strange fire in her eyes.

She seemed... hesitant, almost afraid to say whatever it was that was hovering on her mind. But then, slowly, she spoke, "It's not what I've seen... but what I haven't seen."

And with that, she left before I could question her any further. This was odd, Alice never hid anything from me, no matter how upsetting it might be, no matter what it was, she would tell me. My stomach twisted, and that feeling of unease intensified, only this time it was mine instead of others.

What was it that Alice hadn't seen?

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

When the time came, we all assembled in the clearing; waiting for Edward to finally arrive with Bella. I didn't understand why she had to come, since she couldn't really benefit from this. But Edward had said that she had felt a duty, a responsibility, to be there since she felt such immense guilt about bringing this down on us. And no matter what any of us told her, she refused to let go of that feeling of remorse.

There was nothing that she could have done, and this vendetta was entirely Victoria's doing; none of us could have stopped it. After all, the only way that we could stop it was to kill the female vampire behind it.

We waited in the clearing, with Carlisle at the front, with the rest of us grouped loosely around the clearing behind him. Somehow, I was tucked behind Emmett's bulk; blocking off my view of the wolves when they finally arrived. Though he couldn't block out the scents.

The wolves had very difficult scents to place, but they were unpleasant in how... I was not sure how to describe them, but it made my nose wrinkle with how strong they were. Too much like the forest, and not in the pleasant way; like a freshly cut pine or just pine altogether; it was a very earthy smell that had been intensified to the point where it burned. But I couldn't put the scents to the individual wolf that they belonged too.

Edward and Bella had been the last of us to arrive, and they stood a little separate from the rest of us; Bella had Edward's arm around her shoulders protectively, and he was telling her that it was alright if she fell asleep during the meeting. She nodded before looking over to the wolves and offering a small smile.

My eyes followed the path of the smile, and I saw the large, russet colored wolf who she was looking at. He was nearly the same size as the big wolf who I was assuming was the alpha, the one Bella said was named Sam, which was surprising. Though, this wolf seemed much leaner, less bulk, then the black wolf. I was surprised at that, I wasn't expecting them to be so lean. I'd been expecting big and bulky creatures, looking like wolf versions of Emmett.

An amusing idea.

Alice was still avoiding me, and I noticed there was also a distant look in Edward's eyes as well. I realized that they both knew what was going on, which made me feel even more confused because now, I was beginning to believe that it just might have something to do with me. Or was it possible that it had something to do with the wolves? After all, Alice couldn't see them. Her words from earlier came back to me.

_"... what I haven't seen."_

What could it mean? I was being left with no answers, something that I had very good reason to be worried or nervous about. It meant that there was quite possibly something bad that would happen, and there would be change. Permanent change. Though whether this change would be for the good or for the bad was still very much an open issue.

Chasing possibilities around my head was not working, I didn't have enough information to make any very accurate guesses. I would need to know more.

Carlisle and Alice were quick to explain the basics of what was going on, and what I would be teaching them tonight. Already I had my entire lesson planned out and ready to go, I knew what I would show them, and what could wait for another night. The wolves would most likely be getting much more out of this then any of us probably would have liked, but it was a necessity.

It was when Carlisle stepped aside and I came forward that everything went straight to hell. I was running my eyes over the wolves, trying to get a feel for what their personalities were, and then trying to draw conclusions on what their type of fighting style would be. My eyes were brief to settle on the russet wolf at the end, but it was something that happened just before that which changed everything.

One of them had just simply frozen. I was nearly overwhelmed at that moment by this flood of emotions that I could never recall having felt before, and it was only by sheer force of will and years of military training that kept me on my feet. The feeling that world had just very suddenly stopped and that everything had shifted reached me, leaving me struggling to just remember who I was.

Then, there were several other feelings that had washed over me, each one more positive, more passionate then the last; the almost shocking part was that I actually **_liked_** it. More then that, I was actually yearning to feel more of that, it gave me a sense of safety and security that I hadn't felt for such an achingly long time that my own still heart felt like it might start pounding in my chest before leaping straight out.

Even though I knew that these feelings had to be coming from one of the wolves, I couldn't find the necessary parts of me to feel disgusted. It was almost as if something inside of me had been changed, twisted, leaving me incapable of experiencing the hated disgust that I should have. But then, a small voice in the back of my head told me that nothing had changed, I had just become all too painfully aware of it.

It all disappeared suddenly. Leaving a hollow ache in my heart, and then a twinge of guilt that was not mine. Shortly thereafter, the russet colored wolf left, and I was left with a very hard realization that I now knew the source of the strange rush of emotions that had swept through me. And even though that was there, and now I could feel the appropriate guilt, there was this inexplicable urge to chase after him, to bring him back. I wanted to better understand them, to know them, and that was the purely innocent part of it.

There was a much... darker, more lustful side to that strange string of plain want and need that had suddenly grabbed my still heart and captured my mind.

But then reality crashed back down on me with Edward's strangely echoing voice.

"_Don't worry about Jacob, he'll be fine. Please continue._"

It was Esme who seemed worried, her mother-like nature coming out, "Are you sure?"

"_Yes. This is something that he needs some time to deal with, but I'm sure that already one of you knows completely what is going on._"

I turned, my eyes meeting Edward's, and I knew that he knew precisely what was going on and was very much aware of the strange tangle of thoughts that had rushed through me mere moments before. With a little tilt of my head, I could see Alice at his side, she gave me a small smile, but the quiet, soft love I normally felt there was gone. Now, it was more of a... familial type of love, and it left me completely dumbfounded.

What had changed?

"_We're running short on time, so please, continue._" There was a silent exchange between the others, and I felt suddenly very left out of my own family; like I was an outsider peering in.

Carlisle nodded, "Jasper, please go on. He's right; we don't have very much time to prepare for the newborns, and they'll need to get as much experience as they can in such a short period of time." I gave a quick nod before I began.

"Newborns are relatively easy to predict combat-wise. Expect them to make quick moves that are designed to strike at the vital points; the neck, the chest, the head. While they aren't too strategic or relatively smart in this sense, their real strength lies in the pure brutal physical power they have. Since they're still under the one year mark, this strength won't have faded; their human blood is still in their veins, slowly being absorbed. It's this which makes them so difficult; they can easily overpower even the most ancient of vampires."

I shifted so that I was half-facing the wolves, and gestured for Emmett to come forward, "Emmett will demonstrate."

He grinned savagely at me, the cocky arrogance rolling off of him made me roll my eyes. This would be much too easy, but it would make for a good distraction.

And that is precisely what I needed.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

It seemed to me like our first meeting with the wolves had been successful. But still... I had that feeling deep in the pit of my stomach that refused to let me believe that all was right. As well, my family telling me that they needed to have a 'private' discussion didn't sit too well with me either; especially because they had requested that I stay in the field while they went to have this discussion far enough away that I wouldn't hear them.

Of course, it was simple luck that Bella had fallen asleep during the meeting itself; I think that the movements that she couldn't follow had made her eyes tired, and she had eventually just given in to the seductive wiles of sleep. It was almost enough to make me feel jealous, but that was something that was very easily squelched.

Rubbing my temples, I tried to fight back the tension and confusion that was threatening to over take me. If I wasn't dead, I was quite sure that my head would have been throbbing and I would be feeling like absolutely terrible at that moment. But I wasn't human, and I wasn't quite dead either, so nothing really came out of it but my mind hurting from running in the hamster wheel of circling thought that it was taking.

But right then, the wind shifted. I took a deep breath in, attempting to calm myself.

And then all of the tension, the confusion, just flew right out of me.

I felt completely relaxed, and I inhaled again, just so I could once more fill my being with that delicious scent that had just then made its appearance. My entire being suddenly felt almost like it was floating, like it was intoxicated with the scent, but the grounding of my feet on the ground and the scents of the wolves and the smell of the forest mixed in, it wasn't as potent as it could be.

A quiet hum slipped past my lips, and I continued to breathe deeply, just so I could continue to fill my lungs with that potent scent of pomegranate and blackberry.

There was a difference though, with this scent I didn't feel the nearly overpowering need to hunt, to drink, that I felt when I scented a human who had such a delectable scent. All I wanted right at that moment was to race to the side of whatever beautiful creature possessed that scent and wrap myself so tightly around them that I would be permeated with that scent.

"Jasper, we need to talk."

Alice startled me out of the almost disturbing (and very adulterous I might add) thoughts that I had been stewing in while the rest of our family had been speaking. I smiled at her, "About what?"

"About you and I, and what is going to be happening." She stopped me before I could ask her precisely what she meant. "Jasper, I know that you may not want to hear this, but... I've always known, even before we met, that I was never what you would always need."

I wanted to deny it, to tell her that she was all I'd ever wanted; and more then I'd ever deserved, but I couldn't find my voice. The words wouldn't come, and that pesky little voice was back, and telling me that I couldn't tell her something untrue. Especially now.

"I didn't know when it would happen, but I knew that you would eventually leave me. Once you were ready, and that person came along, that you would be prepared; you wouldn't feel any regret. Because I knew with everything in me that all I could do for you was help you to heal, to trust and learn to love again." Her eyes were painfully wide and honest.

Somehow, though, knowing all of this didn't hurt me as I felt it would if she had said this just a few hours earlier. But I knew, and she knew, that when I'd met her I had been lonely. I had been feeling unworthy, I didn't trust, and I didn't believe that I would be able to love again. For so long I'd been nothing more really then a tool, an instrument of death, that I had long forgotten the pleasures of emotions; of the joy of being in love, and having that love returned.

"When I first saw you, when I brought into this life and shown that vision of you; I somehow knew that it would be my job to take that handsome and lonely man, and build him back up into the person who he might have once been. And I would do all of that because I knew that, one day, there would be someone out there who would be able to love him more then I ever could.

"It made me happy. Happy to know that for whatever short time I could have with you, that I would be giving you something that would one day give you that eternal happiness that we could all strive for. And I knew that I loved you, but that I could never give you that all encompassing and deep love that you really needed. The most I could do was piece you back together and open your eyes to the world and its endless possibilities."

I couldn't deny it; the waves of happiness, tinted with even just that little touch of sadness made me realize that she was letting me go. Alice was telling me, in that strange way of hers, that I was free now; that the one person who could complete me was out there, and she wanted me to go find them. My heart twisted in a very painful way, realizing that she was right; she had fixed me, and now I was ready for whatever conflict of the heart would be thrown my way.

"And now, what I knew would happen has. Only within few days have I seen your future disappear from me, but I knew that it didn't mean your life had ended. No, I knew, and now with what I know of the wolves, I know what's waiting for you."

"... you... do?"

She nodded, her voice was softer now, and it very nearly broke my heart, "It's called imprinting. When a werewolf imprints, it means that they've found their soul mate; the only one who they will ever be capable of loving with every fiber of their being. It's the one who makes them complete, the one who they need in every manner of the word; the one they would do anything for, even die."

And I knew, I knew what had happened.

"One of the wolves imprinted on me."

It all made sense. The feelings, the intensity of them, that feeling of the world shifting to focus on a single person and then that indescribable warmth. Passion, desire, and love all mixed in there to form a blanket which could suffocate you, but you would never complain; because isn't it still incredibly romantic to die for love?

"Yes."

I closed my eyes, suddenly feeling very at peace with myself, before I asked the question which would change everything for me.

"Who is it?"

"Jacob, Jacob Black."

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

I know that I said in the last chapter that I wouldn't be posting anything more until after I had completed my Biology 20AP final, but I just felt that since this is the case, that I should give you guys a little extra to make up for my absence that my frantic studying has caused.

Oh, and here's the worst thing that happened today. I had my playing final in band, and of course I knew what I would be tested on in Amparita, but I was hoping that I'd get lucky and my teacher wouldn't make me play the run from hell (it's all very low; it goes from a low A to a C back to a low A then up to a C#), but he did. And of course, I screwed up because I can't make it through the run without royally messing up; though the grade twelve bari can't play it through either. It's one of those runs that composer's write and don't think about the difficulty that players will face playing it.

But I won't complain anymore about that, I'm putting it behind me for the time being, and now I'm hoping that everyone will leave me some comments on these parts since I worked so hard on them. Now I'm going to bed since I have two finals tomorrow, and I have last minute review that I want to get done between them as well.

Twilight.


	4. III Swaying Blade, My Lullaby

**Notes:** The exams are now over, which means that I now have the rest of my exam break to myself. It's really nice to have my freedom back after the hell I had to put myself through in order to study for my exams so that I could pass them with good marks. Okay, I know you guys don't really want to hear about my personal life, so here's the next installment in the story.  
**Parts:** Part III [ Swaying Blade, My Lullaby ]  
**Rating:** pg13  
**Pairing:** Jasper/Jacob  
**Words:** 4 614 words  
**Disclaimer:** The _Twilight_ series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own the characters or anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise.

**Swaying Blade, My Lullaby**

My eyes were burning, and despite the exhaustion that was clawing at my mind and body, I couldn't let myself sleep. There were too many uncertainties floating in my head, and a whole hell of a lot of thoughts I shouldn't be having. I think I would've cried with the frustration of it all, but I'd already cried myself all out the night before.

I knew I couldn't spend the whole day locked up in my room, but I'd rather stay in my room then have to go out and brave everyone's reactions. And besides that, I was still having a rather hard time with coming to terms with the entire 'I just imprinted and it's on a vampire' thing. Well, actually I was doing better then I thought I would. Blame the whole imprint thing, it was seriously screwing with my head.

There was a banging at my door, and I threw the other pillow over my head, while curling up around my pillow; which still had slightly damp spots on it from all my crying.

"Oi, Jake open up!" That was Quil.

"Yeah! We wanna talk to you! And Seth's here too!" Embry.

"... I can talk for myself, Embry."

"GO AWAY."

I didn't want to talk to them, or see them, for that matter, considering what had happened last night. Some part of me was scared that they wouldn't accept my imprint, but I was also aware that there was that slight chance that Sam could order them after the vampire to kill him; fearing that it might not be what it was. It was that which scared me the most, but I also just wanted to be alone.

That was my fear of rejection.

Ridiculous, seeing as I was the perfect choice for whatever the blond vampire could ever want or need, but Bella had said that now the entire Cullen family had their mate. But somewhere, that voice was telling me that I had nothing to worry about.

"Oh, c'mon Jake! Let us in! We wanna talk to you." Quil and Embry obviously hadn't wanted to give up on seeing me that easily; though, I was very glad that I had Seth on my side, cause he automatically got the idea that I did **_really_** want to be alone.

"Quil, I think maybe we should give Jake some space. You should know how it is when you imprint."

"Yeah, but-"

"Let's leave him be for now, we can come back later. See you around Jake!" Dimly, I heard their footsteps fade and then the front door slam close behind them as they left. I noted that I'd left my window open from the night before, but I didn't want to have to get up to close it. From outside, I could hear their voices drifting in from where they were talking on the front porch.

"... shouldn't he have snapped out of it?" Embry was asking.

"Depends, none of us know the consequences of if one of us imprint on one of **_them_**. He might not snap out of this for a while, or it could be just temporary. Like I said, I don't know; my experience is with imprinting on a human."

"Hey, don't look at me Embry, I haven't imprinted."

I was still curled tightly around my pillow, with my thoughts a huge jumble of pieces. But even I couldn't have missed what they said next, and it made me curl up in almost horrified embarrassment around the pillow even more.

"Seth, you go find that leech."

My life could not have gotten any worse.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

I think about another hour had passed, when there was another knock at my door. I thought that it was the guys back to bug me again, so I threw the pillow at the door with another, "Leave me alone" as a warning. Turns out, it wasn't the guys.

"Jake?" That was Emily. "Um, I know that you might not want to talk to anyone... but would you please let me in? Or at least let me talk to you? I mean, I'll understand it if you'd rather I left, but everyone's worried about you, and Billy has started to ask questions. We can't cover for you forever."

Well, I wasn't going to let her in. I still didn't want to face anyone in the pack until all of this had been worked out and I was a little more sure of my future. There was a lot I didn't know, but most importantly, I desperately needed to know that the one who I'd imprinted on would appreciate me. I just needed confirmation that this was a mutual feeling.

Another light knock at the door brought me back to reality.

"Jake?"

Now that I was actually out of bed, I propped myself up against the door; wrapping my arms around my knees as I drew them to my chest, "Yeah... I'm here Emily."

"I take it you're not going to let me in?"

"... just tell me what you came here to tell me and leave me alone." I knew I was being rude, and I knew Sam would probably kill me for it later; but I wasn't in the best of moods at that moment. All I wanted was to be alone until the rejection came and I'd go and throw myself off the nearest cliff.

"Seth went, you know, to go talk to that lee - the one you imprinted on."

"Heh, he's a leech, Emily, you don't have to dress that up." Oddly, the word left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth.

I was guessing that she had also taken a seat on the other side of the door, because I felt and heard a thump from the door; Emily's voice sounded a little closer now, "I know. But I don't want to upset you, and besides that...

"Everyone doesn't think less of you Jake, because of this. It doesn't matter who you've imprinted on, it doesn't change who you are, and we will still accept you because you are part of this family. This doesn't change anything."

I scoffed, "Leah seems to feel otherwise."

"If you don't want to, the others will understand if you decide to take a break from the pack. But Quil, Embry, and Seth all really want you back."

I knew that Leah would never change, at least not very easily, and she hated the Cullen family with everything she had because she believed fervently that they were solely responsible for where her life was headed. For what had been stolen from her, she blamed them. And now, I was, in her mind, one of them; and she couldn't forgive me for that. Ever. Quil and Embry would stand by me, just like best friends were supposed to do; and Seth was the only one who wouldn't judge me because of this. Seth was the open-minded one, who saw the good in everyone and wouldn't pass judgement on someone because of what they were or because of something outside of their control.

At the very least, I knew that I would have three allies; three people who would stand by me. Emily was too kind, she was the understanding one, she would accept me no matter what.

"You guys are all being good about this."

"We don't want to lose you."

"But we're forgetting one thing," my voice was bitter, cynical. "All of this is riding on whether or not that cold one who I imprinted on will give me the chance for a relationship of any kind. For all we know, he could quite possibly want me dead. Remember what Bella said? They're all **_together_**, I've just stepped into the middle of an established relationship."

"Jake..."

"And from what I've heard, he's with the one who can see the future; the one who can't see us, conveniently enough. What could I give him that she couldn't? She can give him whatever he needs before he needs it, she can tell him what he needs to hear before he does; she's perfect, perfect for him, for anyone, and I can't do that.

"What can I give him, Emily? We're two completely different races, who just happen to be mortal enemies and are meant to fight each other to the death. I'm mortal, he's not. What can I give him that he can't get from anyone, anywhere, else? What am I to him but a nuisance? A mistake? Tell me Emily, **_what can I give someone who already has everything_**?!"

"I... I can't..."

Letting my head drop to my knees, I felt exhausted after my little tirade; I was emotionally drained and I didn't feel like I could feel anything more at that moment. All I wanted was to be alone, so that I could wallow in my own misery of what could have been. I'd rather fantasize about what I could have had. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, and all I wanted was to be alone when I lost it.

"Emily just... just leave me alone."

"Jake..."

"Please! Just... just go!"

"O-okay..." I heard her stand up, and then her footsteps going down the hallway to the kitchen. Then, I heard her talk softly with Sam, and I knew that she wasn't the only one who knew that I was coming apart at the seams. But then, Emily and Sam told each other everything; there were no secrets between them.

I ignored them, and only a tiny portion of my mind noted that they closed the front door behind them with a bang. And I didn't care that they were worried about me, that I was coming apart at the seams because the one who I imprinted on would never want anything to do with me. My heart was having troubles coming to terms with that. All I wanted was to be left alone to my own misery and hatred of myself.

For a number of reasons, I should have been angry. But I couldn't find it in myself to be able to feel that way; all I was feeling was how utterly alone I felt. Somehow, I didn't feel so forgiving of myself when it should be him who I shouldn't be able to forgive; but that's not how it went.

If he was happy, then I couldn't hate him for finding that happiness with someone else, but it hurt me because I was hating myself for wanting to take that happiness away from him to satisfy myself. I was a horribly selfish person, and that was what was making me so unhappy. The fact was that I couldn't be happy unless I had him, and I couldn't.

Billy wasn't home, I couldn't smell him anywhere and I hadn't heard him come home either. What I was planning to do was stupid, and it wasn't very likely to work, but there had to be some way for me to alleviate the pain that I was feeling. I needed to remedy how selfish I was being, and the loathing that I felt because of that towards myself.

Luckily for me, you could say, Billy kept the kitchen knives on the counter in a knife block. And it was the kitchen that was my destination after I unlocked my door and left my room. All I needed was to grab one of the knives from the block before I went right back to the hole I'd crawled out of.

I locked the door behind myself again, and then leaned back against it, sliding down until I was sitting on the floor, knees upright and close to my chest. Weighing the knife in my hands for a few moments, I actually debated about what it would take with it to kill me. It would have to be a clean hit, somewhere in the internal organs where it would be nearly impossible to heal quickly enough to save me. A hit to the heart would be my best bet.

But I wasn't doing this because I wanted to die, because there was that slim possibility that, at some point, he could change his mind. All the blame for this should be on me, I didn't want him or anyone to think that I'd killed myself because of him. I wasn't going to kill myself, I couldn't do that to Billy; it would kill my father to know that I'd done that, and this... this was just about the pain. It was about causing the pain because I was being a selfish ass.

The first cut was across my forearm, and the stinging pain relieved my loathing for a while, but then it surged back, and I had to make another cut. It was now, of all times, that the tears decided to start coming. I must make some pathetic sight, sitting alone in the dark of my locked room, with a knife and bawling my eyes out.

It doesn't take me very long to exhaust myself to the point where even I can't take anymore. All day has just been one downward cliff after another, and my body can't keep up with the constant emotional roller coaster that I've been on since very early this morning. I hadn't slept, at all, within that time frame, and my body just gave out.

I welcomed the black abyss of unconsciousness.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

What startled me out of my state of unconsciousness was the feeling of something cold and hard touching me. It was a stark contrast to the heat of my own body, and it must have been that which woke me up. Opening my eyes, I could have sworn that I was dreaming. Well, either that or I was dead, one of the two.

A pair of dark gold eyes were staring at me, and I found that I couldn't look away, even when those eyes flickered away from mine, taking in the rest of me. My breathing was catching in my throat as both of his hands were now holding my face in place as his eyes looked over it, and I found that I couldn't look away. I was praying that this wouldn't be a dream; I was terrified that I'd wake up and wouldn't be able to move on with the imagery and sensations my subconscious had summoned for me.

Of course, then he had to kiss me, and I still wasn't waking up. Alright, let's face it, my brain kinda just walked out on me right there. I didn't think that I could dream this up; I wasn't that creative.

His lips smoothed over mine, velvet soft and cold; and he pressed forward, pushing me against the door with just the right amount of force to make me know that I didn't own him.**_He owned me._**

Something cold and wet traced over my bottom lip before it was tugged at, and I realized belatedly that it was his tongue and his teeth. In some rational part of my brain that still was functioning for some reason, told me that I should be worried about the venom; but the rest of me just told it to shut up as I arched up against him. Really, I didn't care if he killed me by this point, or even if it turned me, all I cared about was the simple fact that he. Was. Kissing. ME.

The burning in my lungs was being firmly ignored, until he seemed to remember that I did need to breathe, and pulled back. His scent was still in my nostrils, and I very nearly whined at the loss of his lips on mine. Again, those golden eyes looked me over.

"This isn't a dream... right?" He frowned for a moment, then smiled at me.

"Not a dream. If it was, then I wouldn't be seeing it too." The rational part of my mind supplied the remainder that vampires couldn't sleep, hence they couldn't dream. He leaned in again, the frown back again as he released my face and instead took up one of my now healed arms in his hands. "Why would you do something like this...?"

Now we were going to have a talk about why I'd been cutting myself? Oh fucking lovely.

"I don't want to talk about it." I looked away, suddenly unable to meet his eyes which looked like they were trying to lift the truth from my mind. Now the guilt was catching up to me; I shouldn't have doubted that this would happen, or that something would, and now I was making him feel miserable and responsible for what I'd done. "It had nothing to do with you though... please don't be mad at yourself."

"Heh, I blame myself for a lot of things, this is one of them."

"Don't. I did this to myself and - what the hell are you doing?!" His tongue snuck out, running along the streaks and slightly scabbed dried blood that was still all over my arms. It wasn't so much that I was disgusted or anything, more like I was surprised that he was doing it. Of all the things that had run through my head earlier, this wasn't one of them.

He didn't respond until my entire forearm, which had been covered with gashes, was cleaned. The venom made my skin tingle as it dried, but I didn't mind it. In fact, I was wondering what it would feel like in... other places. I don't think I had such an innocent mind anymore... still a virgin though.

I placed my hand over his, the difference in temperature was amazing; and a small gasp slipped past those statuesque, perfect lips, and I couldn't help but wonder what they'd taste like. Leaning forward, I kissed him.

It was a lot different this time, and I think it was because I was taking the initiative instead of him. He leaned forward, easing me back against the door again, taking advantage of my own parted lips to plunge right in. It was an extremely interesting experience, one I was sure the rest of the pack weren't going to happy about experiencing when I finally phased again.

At first, I was a little nervous about the venom, but then I tossed that concern right out the window. Why the hell should I care? I'd imprinted on him, there had to be some reason for that so it shouldn't matter if I ingested the shit; and anyways, it's not like it tasted bad or anything. His tongue was almost brutal as it plundered my mouth, tracing over everything there was before snaking around my own tongue and encouraging it.

Leaping into action, I took his face in my hands and pulled him forward as my own head hit the door with a very loud thud. There wasn't any pain, and even if there was I would have ignored it, and I felt the icy feeling as his hands planted themselves on my thighs, gripping them tightly. There wouldn't be bruises there, but now I was starting to feel something that I was completely unfamiliar with as I pulled the other's tongue into my mouth and sucked on it.

It wasn't until his entire body was pressed up against my own that I realized how extremely hard I was. Not too mention the hard erection I felt pressing against my own. I had no idea what I was doing, and the lack of proper sleep wasn't helping me at all. When I'd frozen up, he pulled back, searching my face for something.

He smiled at me, "Let's take this at least a little slow, alright Jake?" I couldn't help but blush when he used my nickname; the way it rolled off his tongue made it very... seductive, I guess. My brain still wasn't function all that well; and my raging hard-on still hadn't gone down, I'd need a cold shower to take care of that.

It was about now that I became aware of the thud of the front door, and I heard my dad calling out my name from the kitchen. When Jasper made to stand up, I grabbed his arms.

"Don't go. Just stay in here, okay? I'll be right back." He looked at me for a moment, then nodded.

He pulled me onto my feet, and made sure that my tee was straightened out and that my sweats were properly pulled up around my hips; they'd slid a bit scandalously low during our uh... kissing. Once that was done he unlocked my door and shooed me out with one last quick kiss.

Great. Now I had to confront my dad about the entire situation. This was going to be a lot of fun.

Billy was still in the kitchen, so I had enough time to duck quickly into the bathroom after calling out to tell him that I'd be right there. I scrubbed the dried blood off my other arm and dried it before splashing some cold water on my face to better wake myself up; I tend to say too much when I'm tired, and there were things that I was sure my dad didn't need to know.

Just thinking about what I was going to have to tell Billy was enough to squelch my hard-on from earlier.

When I got out of the bathroom, Billy was at the kitchen table, Sue at his elbow. Oh. Well fuck, I was screwed. Wait, I was screwed before. Gah! I wasn't thinking straight, didn't help that I still had Jasper's scent all over me and that was proving to be distracting too. Though, it was also helping to calm me down. Or, you know, that could have just been him.

"It's good to see you up Jake, I was starting to get worried." I glanced at the clock; it was just about nine. Wow, I'd spent a lot of time in my room before Emily had gotten there, and Seth and the others had only been here in the late afternoon. I'd pretty much wasted an entire day.

"Uh, yeah..." I shuffled, uncomfortable with their eyes on me; especially Sue's. Her eyes seemed almost accusatory in nature, though I think she'd been listening to Leah too much. "Listen dad, I need to talk to you about something that happened last night..."

"Did the leeches do something?" His eyes narrowed, and the hate was dripping off his tone. In me, something was roaring to be let out. I didn't like that it had to be this way, but I knew that there was the chance that he wouldn't too happy about who I'd imprinted on; much less that there was a vampier in **_his_** house.

"Well, not exactly... see um, dad, I kinda well..."

"Imprinted on a leech is what." Damn Sue. I was getting to the point.

"Yeah..." I felt like throttling Sue right at that moment, but I held myself back. For one thing, I'd feel horrible later that I'd killed a human, and someone who I cared about; but I'd wanted to tell Billy what it was that had happened, and Sue had no right to say that. "And don't call him a leech Sue."

There was a lot of silence after that.

"You... WHAT?!" I winced at the volume of my dad's voice.

"Sue just said it. Very bluntly and clearly, but I'll repeat it if I have too. I imprinted, on a vampire." A male one too, but I wasn't going to tell him that just then.

"Jacob William Black!" I noted the use of my full name. "Just when were you planning on telling me this?!"

"Uh, when I figured out just what I was going to do about it...?" It came out more as a question, but my dad didn't seem to notice that. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

"So this is why Sam told us he had made some changes to the details of the treaty..." He nodded to himself, then, "So? When do I get to meet her?"

"Uh... first off, it's a he, and he's just down the hall in-"

"A HE?!"

"Yeah dad... it's a guy." I shifted, uncomfortable with my dad's tone of voice. "And he's just down the hall if you want to meet him."

"He's in the HOUSE?"

"Well uh, yeah? He hasn't been here long though." Billy's eyebrow twitched, but he nodded.

"Alright, let's meet him. Sue? Thank you for bringing me home, but I think that you should head home; your kids are probably worried about you."

Sue nodded stiffly, "Of course, I'll come by in the morning then?"

"It would be appreciated."

"Alright, goodnight Billy, Jacob." She disappeared out the front door.

"So you really wanna meet him?"

"I said I did, so let's see him."

I didn't even have to go back down the hall to my room, because Jasper was very suddenly at my side looking rather intimidating. This was when I realized that he'd probably heard the entire conversation. Sighing, I still felt exhausted, Jasper reached out, taking my hand in his; and I felt a little more awake then, not to mention filled with comfort. Oh, that was right. Bella had said that he had some form of empathic powers... made sense.

"Well, introduce him Jacob," my dad was as gruff as ever, but he was also probably tired too. I swallowed, still a little nervous, but Jasper squeezed my hand and I felt a wave of calm courage wash over me. I guessed it was Jasper's way of telling me that I could do this.

"Dad, this is Jasper - "

"Whitlock." I nearly did a double-take at the last name, because I distinctly remembered that Bella said his last name was Hale; same as the blond bitchy chick.

"Yeah, Jasper Whitlock. Jasper? This is my dad, Billy Black."

"A pleasure to meet you," Jasper replied, smiling just a tiny bit. I was pretty sure he was making the effort because of me, or it could be that he was just naturally a very polite person. Well, it didn't matter.

"It's nice to meet you too." Billy wheeled himself over to us from where he was on the other side of the kitchen table. He thrust his hand out, which Jasper was prompt to take. A brief handshake, then both released the others hand quickly. Well, they'd never be friends, but they could at least get along somewhat; though I think they were both only making the effort to please me.

It sucked, but I'd deal.

I yawned, and automatically the attention as all back on me. Jasper allowed Billy to wheel past us, and my dad called back down the hall, "Get to bed Jake! And I don't wanna hear either of you doing ANYTHING suggestive! Keep it in your pants until I'm out of the house!"

That made me turn an extremely bright shade of red, and Jasper shifted a little uncomfortably and looked away from me in embarrassment. Well, he made it look good; even though he couldn't blush due to being dead and a vampire. I was getting over the fact that I'd imprinted on a vampire rather quickly; though the whole sex aspect was completely new to me.

When I yawned again, Jasper snapped out of his embarrassment, slinging his arm around my hips and pulling me close to him. The cold, hard feel of his body was welcome, and I let my head rest on his shoulder, exhausted from everything that had happened today. Jasper led me back down the hallway to my room, picking me up and putting me on the bed.

I, of course, pulled him in after me to his surprise. And once the covers had been pulled up around us, I snuggled close, my head resting over his chest, and murmured, "You'd better be there when I wake up..."

Cold fingers ran through my hair, and I had one arm under me that came up around my shoulders, pulling my closer until I was half on top of him. I slung my own arm over his hips, finding that I was already drifting off to sleep.

"Goodnight pup. I'll be here when you wake up."

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

Okay, there. I finished the part. And it morphed into a monster too. Anyways, a few things that have been changed. For one, the venom isn't poisonous to the wolves; I find this something stupid that Meyer did, it makes fighting vampires very hard for werewolves. My thinking is that they're not completely immune to it, the venom would probably cause them to turn into a hybrid of some sort. Details haven't been ironed out. And ingesting WOULD NOT CAUSE THIS MUTATION TO OCCUR. Scientifically speaking, ingesting venom wouldn't kill you, in fact, it probably wouldn't have any adverse effects; it would pass harmlessly through the body. Meaning that the venom would have to hit the blood stream to have any effect.

On another note, Jake's height's been changed. This is more because I was thinking that 6'7 is a bit on the side of being dangerous. I know Meyer obviously wasn't thinking about the scientific or medical ramifications of the werewolves being 6'5+, but I know enough to know that it's inching in on being diseased. The main cause of giantism (which causes people to be way above average height, and the werewolves are close to this), is a tumor on the pituitary gland which causes it to excrete excess amounts of growth hormones; and this usually results in the person's death at a relatively young age. This is why his height has been changed to being 6'2 (plus Jen likes the idea of him being shorter then Jazz).

Any questions? Please leave me a nice review?

Twilight.


	5. Interlude II :: hoping for a sign

**Notes:** This part was started at about the same time as the last one, but since I was being urged to finish a part and get it up; I couldn't finish this one at the same time too. Anyways, this story is taking on a life of its own (like they often do) and is actually going to be much longer then the original five parts it was originally supposed to be. Unfortunately, I don't know when this one will end; but there's gonna be some sex scenes.  
**Parts:** Interlude II [ hoping for a sign ]  
**Rating:** pg13  
**Pairing:** Jasper/Jacob  
**Words:** 3 736 words  
**Disclaimer:** The _Twilight_ series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own the characters or anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise.

**Interlude II  
. hoping for a sign .**

The last thing any of us expected was finding a werewolf on our front doorstep the day after our meeting with them the night before. Alice was the first one at the door; she'd most likely been alerted to his presence by the fact that our futures just disappeared.

When the rest of us came down, the werewolf shuffled nervously, and cautiously peeked up at us. I could feel waves of nervousness coming off of him, but also there was curiosity there too. He was... well, intrigued by us, and just maybe willing to take the time to actually understand us and take the time to judge by who we are; not **_what_** we are.

"Uhh... hi."

"Can I... help you?" Alice asked, her delicate nose curling upwards at the smell. Actually, I didn't think that it was too bad, but it wasn't great either.

"Well, it's sorta complicated." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly; I could sense Rosalie's tense set and the anger rolling off of her sharply, and it only put me on edge. Surprisingly, though, I actually didn't feel threatened by this mere slip of a boy; even though I knew that he could easily tear one of us apart if he chose to phase.

Carlisle took charge, his unruffled and calming presence a welcome balm to Rosalie's volatile and often cruel nature, "Please, I think an introduction would be welcome."

"Oh, uh, right, I'm Seth." His eyes flickered over all of us, but it was me who he finally settled his gaze on; and I knew that it was me who he had came to see. I was the reason that he had wondered into the lion's den.

This confused me, because I didn't believe that he was the one from the night before; that great russet wolf which had taken off in such a hurry after that flurry of emotions that had made me feel, for the first time in over a hundred years, like I was **_alive_**. It was a very nice feeling, one I had been bereft of for too long.

"Seth, then, please come in. We can talk more."

"Uh... actually, I just came cause I need to talk to him," here he paused to point at me; I guessed that they really hadn't made any attempt to memorize our names. Though, I was pretty sure that, by now, all of the werewolves knew Edward and who he was. But the fact that he came looking for me? It seemed almost too... well I wanted to say cliché, but that didn't seem like quite the right word to use. Unusual, I could almost always find a word to fit any given situation, but now, I was completely at a loss.

"Of course, Jasper?" Now the attention was on me, and I was surprised out of my thoughts.

"Seth, was it?" He nodded. "You said you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yeah... uh, could we do this in private? Please?"

Quite suddenly, my family made it a point to not be in the house. All of them had disappeared to do who knows what outside; Esme went to her garden, with Carlisle at her side. Rosalie and Emmett disappeared into the woods, probably for a little 'alone' time. It was Alice who stopped briefly beside me, and whispered, "Listen to what the pup has to say, then make a decision."

Then she too was gone.

I gestured for the young pup to follow me, and lead him to the sitting room portion of the main floor, and he sank down into the couch, while I stood between him and the entertainment system. An uncomfortable silence hung over the room for a time, until it was broken.

"You came here to talk to me about...?" I waved my hand in the air in a vague gesture to tell him to continue. Something in me was taking over, desperate to know what it was that he came for. That ache that had been there since I'd felt those waves of passionate belonging, possession, and sheer pure love from the night before. And my heart was yearning to be wrapped in that again.

"Oh right. Yeah, sorry. Um... this wasn't my idea, I told Quil and Embry that this was a bad idea," he seemed... horribly uncomfortable with being here, and my own anxiety to hear whatever it was that he had to say. Something told me it was what I was dying to hear.

Someone, somewhere, was calling out to me; calling out to every fiber of my being.

Find me, hold me, take me, own me, love me.

Seeing as I didn't interrupt him, the young pup continued, while I listened to him, "Look, since well, Jake imprinted on you, there have been a few changes that Sam's had to make with the elders cause of it. Nothing like this' ever happened before. So-"

"If this is about the imprinting, then I have no problem with it." That seemed to set him somewhat more at ease, but it didn't seem like it was the sole reason for why he was here. "Is there something else?"

"We were kind of hoping... that you could come talk to him. Just to, you know, make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Would he?"

"He might, he won't talk to any of us. I know that Sam was going to ask Emily to talk to him, make sure he knows that none of us will hate him or something like because of all this. It's just how Jake is."

I thought it over; I had received Alice's blessing to do whatever I wished, she had let me go. And with what Seth had told me, it seemed that my best choice would be to take his advice and talk to Jacob, or as everyone else seemed to call him, Jake. But there was something wrong. I wasn't allowed to set foot on their land, with what I was, going to see him would most likely get me killed.

"How can I go talk to him if he's refusing to leave his room? I'm not allowed on Quileute land."

"Technically, the treaty's nullified in this case. Since Jake imprinted on you, you're not included with the other vampires in the details. Just means you can come onto our land; it wouldn't be good for any of us if Jake spent all his time on the other side of the border."

This caused my head to snap up and make me pay attention. So I was an honorary member of their pack?

"If I am understanding this correctly, then I am being given permission to cross the border?"

"Yeah, it wouldn't be all that nice if we didn't let Jake see you everyday or whenever he wanted. It would kind of defeat the point. But yeah, Quil and Embry are really worried that Jake'll pull some stupid stunt cause of what Bella's told him about you guys-"

"Wait. How much did Bella tell him?"

"I don't think that at the time she thought you guys would be coming back, so she did tell us a lot. Think she mentioned something about all of you already being in pretty well-established relationships with the one who you were supposed to-"

"Shit!"

I wasn't really thinking about my own actions by that point, because the moment he told me that Bella had told them about our relationships, and that could not lead to anything good. Or even remotely ending well. All I knew at that moment was that I had to find Jacob as quickly as I possibly could, and make sure that he didn't do anything that could cause him harm. What had me panicking the most was the thought that he might be so desperate for some measure of peace that he could take his own life.

My mind was blinded with worry and the only thing that managed to pierce that panic-induced haze was the scent that I knew was his. It had faded since the night before, but was still potent enough for me to follow it accurately. It was ingrained into my mind, after years, of where the border was, but the only thought that passed through my mind when I crossed it was that I was only halfway to where I needed to be.

Only a few steps onto Quileute land, I was tackled to the ground. Pinned underneath the smaller, lean werewolf, I growled up at them; it's never a good idea to piss off a vampire, especially not when it concerns one who we care deeply for. In times like this, we will do anything, and I do mean anything, to protect them.

The grey wolf was glaring and snarling down at me, the teeth were bared at me, and there was anger rolling off of them in waves. I just continued to snarl; if I wasn't unconsciously making the effort not to cause permanent harm, I most likely would have simply torn her throat out. But as it was, I simply swung my legs up, braced them against the chest and then sent the werewolf flying over me. I didn't care if it landed on its feet, which it did, but I was already on my feet and continuing my run.

It was the scent of pomegranate and blackberry which kept me going, and I found much more recent trails of it around what I was assuming was the Black residence. I inhaled deeply, nearly overwhelmed by the power of the scent and started to try and find a way inside. An open window near the back of the house caught my attention.

With a jump, I was able to land on the sill, and I slipped through easily. I unfolded from my crouch and took in my surroundings. The first thing that assaulted me when I entered the room, was the scent of blood; and not just any blood, it was Jacob's. I felt my own blood boiling in response to the smell, but the blood lust that I had previously experienced wasn't there.

Leaping over the bed, there was no sound when I landed in front of the unconscious werewolf; careful not to land on any part of him, I didn't want to hurt him. The scent of blood was stronger, now that I was closer to him, and as my eyes raked over his body, I saw the half-healed, jagged cuts along his wrists and arms. The blood around them was mostly dried, but some of it was still sticky while a little oozed out of the cuts.

Gently, I reached out, touching his face with one, while the other gently took one his bloodied hands in mine. When my hand tilted his head a little to give me a better look at his face, he started awake. Warm chocolate brown eyes met mine, and I dropped his hand to take his face in both of mine. I looked for something, anything really, that would tell me how he felt about the contact.

His heart was thundering wildly in his chest, and his lips parted as he started to breathe raggedly. I felt the worry coming off of him, the fear, and somehow, I knew that it was all coming down to me. It would be me who decided which way this relationship would go; we were perched on the tip of a knife, and we could plunge either way, it was all dependent on me.

But the longing... I saw the longing in his eyes, and those parted lips... they called to me, and I was like a man in a desert drawn to water. I couldn't resist. I pressed my lips and my entire body against him with the want and the need to completely consume him, but that was not solely it. That warmth that he possessed, that pure love he was offering; I needed it, desperately so. What he was offering I longer to take and to have; and to return.

All I knew was that he was all I could ever want, and I would be or do anything that he could need.

It would have been a hard and painful realization to make if it weren't for how passionately this young man felt. From the cuts and the blood, I knew that he never did anything halfway; it was just part of who he was, and I found myself loving it.

Everything felt new, felt **_different_**, but none of it felt wrong. No, it felt right. He and I fit perfectly together, and he was just as much mine as I was his. There would be no broken hearts here; this was not love, no it was much deeper then that. If I had him, then I was complete.

When I pulled back, remembering that he was still more human then I, and he would need to breathe. Chocolate eyes met mine, and he shakily asked me, "This isn't a dream... right?"

"Not a dream. If it was, then I wouldn't be seeing it too." I leaned in, brushing my hands against his wrists and arms, remembering the blood, and a frown settled onto my face. Carefully, I took one his arms in my hands, my eyes taking in the criss-crosses of dried blood that decorated the bronze skin; and I felt a wave of guilt rush through me. Had he done this... because of me? "Why would you do something like this...?"

He didn't seem too happy about my asking about this, and he automatically rushed to deflect the subject.

"I don't want to talk about it. It had nothing to do with you though... please don't be mad at yourself."

I snorted, "I blame myself for a lot of things, this is one of them."

"Don't. I did this to myself and - what the hell are you doing?!"

My tongue darted out, curious as to what his blood would taste like, given the scent he possessed. But also, I felt guilty for what I believed I had caused. Though, it was mostly because I had this longing to know how his blood would taste; the blood lust wasn't there with his scent, but I still wanted to taste him.

His blood was sweet and rich, nothing at all like the blood of humans which was, in comparison, weak and thin. But the sight of his blood sent a rage, and guilt, rushing through me in such potency that I had never before known. Anyone who would dare to spill his blood would have to answer to me; and they would pay the price in blood, maybe their life. An ugly thought perhaps, but this was something that much deeper then simple love; and it called for more feeling.

When I released his arm, there was a moment where neither of us moved. I was waiting, hoping that he would show me something that would tell me that I had not scared him off with what I had just done; but I could not stop what was in my nature, I couldn't change what I was. Needless to say, I was pleased when he did decide to take the initiative.

The kiss he started was hesitant and shy, but I was again quick to take control of it. I was so anxious to have him against me that I neglected to remember his age. He might have been no angel, but he still had that innocence to him that I myself had long since lost. It was very desirable, and it was also something that I wanted very much to protect; well, unless I would be the one to be corrupting him, but it wasn't quite in the way which the innocence was there.

I think it was the very potent sexual desire that we both were experiencing that made him realize just what it was that his body was silently pleading for. I don't doubt that he had known of these feelings before, but I doubt that he had ever experienced them to the degree which he was feeling them at that moment. It can be a rather... overpowering tide, to say the least.

Pulling away, I looked him over, then smiled, "Let's take this at least a little slow, alright Jake?" We had more then enough time to explore this side of our... new relationship, and I would never push him into something that he wasn't ready for. I wanted him to come to me.

There were shuffling noises and thuds coming from the front of the house, and I surmised that whoever else lived here with Jake had just arrived home. When I had arrived, there had been no other signs or noises signifying that there was any other living person in the house. I made to leave, unsure whether or not my presence would be appreciated. His impassioned pleas are what convinced me to stay; for whatever reason, he wanted me to remain.

While he left to converse with his father, I stayed behind and looked over his room. It wasn't very big, and was a bit cramped, with a double bed, a small night stand, a desk, and a chair; other then that, there was very little in the way of personal touches. In fact, the room was rather barren. The only real touch that would give you any sense that someone did indeed live here, were the two framed pictures on the night stand.

One was obviously of the pack, I could see Jake in the middle between two other boys who were probably around his age; and a young girl in one corner. She looked incredibly bitter and none too happy about the entire situation. The only other one, really, who caught my eye was the young boy in the front.

Sitting down on the side of the bed, I was immersed in his scent. A smile tugged at the corners of my lips and I let my eyes closed. I was waiting, for what I wasn't too sure, but with where the conversation was going outside, I had an idea. Jake was going to introduce me to his father?

"I said I did, so let's see him."

I took that as my cue, because obviously the elder Black wanted to see what his son was getting. I was at his side within half a second; and I took his hand in mine. Jake seemed stressed and nervous, so I made sure that he knew that no matter what, I would support him. All I wanted, was for him to be safe, happy, and loved.

I wasn't sure what compelled me to use a last name which I hadn't used in decades, but somehow it seemed much more right then the lie which I had been living with for our human charade. It didn't seem to matter now; both knew what I was, I had no need to hide behind any false pretenses. Being honest is a good thing, and I would prefer that he knew my real name, and not have to use Rosalie's any more.

"Yeah, Jasper Whitlock. Jasper? This is my dad, Billy Black."

My Southern manners came out, "A pleasure to to meet you."

I was... surprised that he was willing to shake my hand, seeing as how much his family, his people, despised my kind. But I supposed that it was just a result of the situation. He couldn't blame his son for having imprinted on a vampire, and he didn't want to force him to choose between his own family, and me. It was admirable.

Of course, there would be no way that he and I would ever be best friends or ever get along very well; but we could be civil to each other, and we would put forward the effort for Jake's sake. It was really that simple.

Though, I think the most amusing part of that first night was Billy's little lecture on what we could and could not do while he was in the house. I supposed that it was worth it for the fact that Jake turned a very alluring shade of red and was quite embarrassed by the entire thing. Even I was a little embarrassed by it, seeing as what we had been very close to doing just a few minutes earlier.

Though, he was tired so I would of course not do anything to further exhaust him. His scent relaxed me, and I walked him back to his room. Wanting to make sure that he got the rest that he looked like he so desperately needed. Once we were inside his room, I picked him up and made sure that he was in bed; I wasn't planning on climbing into bed with him, but Jake was very insisting on my joining him.

I wound up in the bed with him.

Jake smiled at me once we were under the covers, and I could feel the heat radiating off his body and warming my cold flesh. He was snuggled up against me, and I couldn't help but want to feel more of him at that moment. I pulled him closer, running my fingers through his silky black hair and took a deep breath of his now powerful scent which was making it harder and harder for me to concentrate on what I should and shouldn't do.

I shouldn't have stayed, but I did. And I just couldn't, in good conscience, let him wake up alone. So instead, I promised him that I would right there when he woke up. Another deep breath of his scent, and I managed to regain some form of my own rational thought. It only took a few more hours for me to feel my normally ice cold body warm just a little.

Disengaging myself from him, I let him keep contact with me by letting his head rest in my lap. He curled up around me, shifting a little so that he was breathing in my own scent. I sighed, and ran my free hand through my hair. Right then, I was debating with myself what it was that I wanted to do; for as calm and put together as I had been, I really had no idea where I wanted this to go.

What I wanted... I wanted this. Whatever he had to offer me, I wanted it; I wanted all of him. I had the most beautiful young man; and I was the one who he would look to for everything. It was a little overwhelming, but I would find a way to deal with it.

I had the entire night to think it through, and that would be exactly what I would do.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

Well, this took me longer then what I would have liked. But it did get done. Next chapter: there will be sex. Jen has been giving me ideas, and I just can't turn down her ideas; some of them are just really too good to pass up. Anyways, I'll do my best to get the next part up before break ends. Hope that satisfies everyone.

Now, I may have to go and indulge my reawakened Jakeward muses. It's odd to think about. Anyways, leave me a nice review?

Twilight.


	6. Interlude III :: truth will free my soul

**Notes:** Originally, this part was going to be in here; even in my now revised plans for this fic. But with iTunes being on shuffle, a specific song came on, and I thought that maybe I could slip this one in; because I think it would be interesting to give Jazz some more time to think. I debated briefly on whether or not this part should've been after The Dark Passion Play, but I figured that I wanted to break apart from the pattern I'd set earlier. So instead, it comes first. Parts of this you won't understand until you read part three, but then it'll all make sense.**  
Words:** 2 610 words  
**Disclaimer:** The _Twilight_ series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own the characters or anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise.

**Interlude III  
. the truth will free my soul .**

If there's something to be said about there being a lot of lies wrapped up so that they look better then the truth, then I would know. Though, I suppose, the lies are usually much easier to swallow then the truths are; they're much less ugly. You can dress up a lie as much as you want, but the truth is much harder to tart up; it's always there, staring you right in the face, forcing you to acknowledge it.

Sometimes, though, the truth can be so difficult to spot that you don't know it's there until harsh, cold reality slaps you across the face. Which, in my case, happened recently.

I had not ever thought to look at my own gender for that connection which I knew was there between Esme and Carlisle, Rosalie and Emmett; even Edward and his human girl, Bella. Always I had assumed that the traditional gender roles and rules would apply; man meets woman, they fall in love, they're soul mates. It was as simple as that, at least, it had been.

But there is no such thing as rules in the games of love and affairs of the heart. The boundaries that we impose upon ourselves are merely the results of the times in which we live, and values that are instilled in us from a very young age. From everything that I had known of my human life, and much of my vampire life as well, the idea of two men being together in any sense of intimacy was considered wrong, immoral.

Of course, that was only in the eyes of a human; as a vampire, there are certain shackles of which one is released from when they're turned. You learn quickly that you need to forget about the teachings of your human life, to quit living to human standards, because things change. What may be deemed immoral by the society of the time, may become the norm in just a few short decades.

For instance, only a few decades ago, sex was a very taboo topic. It wasn't discussed publicly or in the privacy of the home; only behind closed doors in the bedroom, in the sanctity of the marriage bed did it ever come up. And there was always very little to talk about; they thought of it as just simply another thing that one had to do in order to procreate.

Now it's almost an everyday subject. You hear people discussing it in the streets, in coffee shops. It's almost as if it's become something that people are fascinated with rather then something to be ashamed of; though discretion and modesty are still widely practiced. And a few things still meet with the general public being rather... squeamish, or in disagreement, of.

Which brought me back to the current dilemma that I was mulling over. Normally I had a rational explanation for everything that I did, I was used to being able to detach myself from a situation and look it over from all angles; searching for any flaws that I could take advantage of, or problems that needed to be fixed. Everything was meticulous and planned.

Love, though, is not rational and can tear even the best laid plans asunder. This wasn't the best situation for any of this to have happened, but it was for the best. I mean, if it wasn't for this situation with the newborns, both of us would have continued with our lives, never knowing that some crucial part of our existence was missing until it was too late.

I was under no illusions that we were going to break the treaty, that eventually Bella Swan would no longer be human. The chances that we could continue to live peacefully alongside the Quileute werewolves would have been crushed with that betrayal; and then, war could possibly break out. I didn't know how the present situation would factor into their decision on whether or not this would count; but I was hoping that it wouldn't be a stupid choice on their part. Or on ours.

Rosalie would do something stupid, if given the chance; she was very open in how she felt about the werewolves. But Carlisle would never think of it, and Esme is such a caring person that she could never hurt anyone consciously.

But I wasn't supposed to be thinking about the what ifs, I didn't have Alice's ability (the thought of her name brought a pang to my heart, though it wasn't the sort of remorseful abandonment that I should have felt); and there was the disadvantage that even she could not see the wolves. For one reason or another, they were immune to it; but I doubted that it was an immunity like Bella's.

Alice. The thought of my now former lover and wife didn't bring that feeling of betrayal and self-loathing that it should have. Those treacherous thoughts that continually whisper in your mind, _how could you do something like this? Don't you love her? How could you just get up and walk away from the woman who you swore to love until death do you part?_

Her words rang true to me; I'd acknowledged that earlier. Maria had destroyed my trust in others, and Alice had been the one to find me at my worst, when I was broken, lost, and hateful of the world which I had lost all of my faith in. All I had was myself, and that was the only person who I could rely on. It was truly that simple. I didn't believe that a monster like me, a true monster, really deserved the love of someone as innocent and pure as the one who had been thrust right into my life.

I was tainted, and so was she. It was a starting point, and it was through her that I started to begin to change; I had the drive and want that was needed, but there was always something missing. Alice had to have known this, and she compensated for it by always being there for me, for helping me through every problem every hurdle in the road which I tripped over. She was there to help set me back on my feet and point me back in the right direction.

But some unconscious part of myself knew that Alice was not who I was seeking, who it was who would truly know who I was and would be able to see and know every part of me. That was a thought that my mind, the rational and conscious part, could not properly handle; at least not then. I needed time, and Alice gave it to me; she gave me everything that I would need in order to find that one special person who could dispel any notion about my lack of human status.

With Alice it had always felt like I was almost **_human_**, but there was that one small fragment of myself that kept reminding me that I was a monster; that I all I would ever be was a cold-blooded killer. And it was that small part of myself that kept reaching out, that kept searching, and it was what had kept me from giving over to the supposed feelings of guilt and self-loathing that I should have been feeling.

Over the years, there had been a bit of a drifting apart between us; one that I hadn't noticed, but I was sure that Alice had seen it, and that she had known what it meant. I was free, she had let me go with the full knowledge that it was never her who had been the one; I did feel like I owed her something, but all I could do for her was hope that she would one day find what I had.

If anyone deserved to be happy and in love, it was Alice.

For everything she had done for me, I was grateful; and I would always be grateful. There was no way that I could erase the close bond that had formed between us over the years, and I didn't want too; even that subconscious part of me wanted her to stay in my life, if only as a friend and adoptive sister. I had what had I had always been looking for, and I wasn't about to give that up.

This made everything much more complicated then it had been before. I hadn't been so worried before the meeting, because I hadn't known nor cared really about any of the wolves; Carlisle and Esme were the bleeding hearts of our family. We would all survive, of that I had such faith in, we were stronger, more indestructible then the wolves.

Jake, though, wasn't like us. He was more human, though much stronger, faster, and with astounding regenerative abilities, but that didn't change the fact that he was human at heart; that he was mortal. That mortality could prove to be fatal; too much damage, too much blood loss could cause irreversible damage or even death. And I didn't even want to think about all of the possible ways that there could be for him to meet his end so quickly; and if that happened... all I would be able to do was pray that it had, or would be, painless.

Pain seared upwards from my chest, and I abruptly got off the couch. I shouldn't be having thoughts like this, not now especially when the battle was hovering so closely over the horizon. I needed to think things through logically, and try and keep my emotions out of it; I could not plan effectively if I was doing so with the sort of emotional viewpoint that I was looking at it with.

A shower seemed like a good idea.

It wasn't too hard to find the bathroom in the tiny house, there was only one, and I tossed my clothes carelessly onto the ground and shut the door. I was wound so tight that even the smallest thing would probably make me snap; I needed to think about something less dark.

Which invariably brought me back to the events of earlier as I stepped under the steaming spray of hot water. I hadn't had sex like that in years, not since my newborn days or the short years which followed meeting Alice; and it was shocking at which it had such a lingering effect on me. I had never thought that sex could be as potent or leave you so desperate for more, but I found that I was already growing hard just thinking about it.

He had tasted sweet, but not that superficial sweet that I'd experienced with others; but a deep, rich taste which left you hungry for more. Think of it, I suppose, like an addiction; once you taste it, you can never have enough, which leaves you yearning for more. My mind was being traitorous, and replayed it for me.

I could remember how it felt as his mouth traced over the scars which covered much of my skin, and I recalled how worried and almost panicked he had been about them. As if they could hurt me, even now. It was endearing, really, that he should care so much about me that past injuries would make him start to fear for my existence, or life perhaps. Each scar that he came across, he pressed his lips against it with such a loving devotion that it made my still heart swell to the point where I thought it might burst.

Instinctively, my more animalistic side had been urging me to simply take; to slake my newfound thirst for him and his flesh and make him mine right then and there. But I couldn't do that to him, not when it was his first time being with anyone; I would not sacrifice the trust and love that he had placed in me so that I could have him right then. I wanted to do it right, and I would injure myself physically and mentally if it was required.

Jake's humanity plagued me during the beginning, I was just so worried that I would hurt him; but he refused to be treated as though he was some fragile human woman, and demanded me to show him, and give him, whatever my vampire nature wanted. And even with that seeming bit of consent, I still held back. Oh, it might not have been as gentle or soft as Edward was with Bella, but it was most definitely not the often rough and violent sex that characterized our race.

Often, we simply take what we want for each other when it comes to sex; we're not used to having to watch our control because we might kill our partner. It had taken every inch of self-control that I had to simply not throw him to the floor and just ravish him right there, regardless of preparation or seeing to his comfort. Now Carlisle's own struggles to control his lust for the blood of humans was beginning to sound as difficult and arduous as it had been; because I could identify with it.

This wanting, this primal urge, that was even then threatening to take over me was tearing at the cage into which I had shoved it into. I couldn't risk letting it out for fear that it would hurt the one person who meant more to me then anything else; even my own life. But I knew that I could only hold it back for so long, that eventually it would break free, and Jake would have to be prepared for the repercussions for what that would bring.

Suddenly I was quite glad that it was a werewolf who held my heart and being and not some weak human. There was an upside to that regenerative power of his; I could be a little more rough, without as much fear that it would bring him permanent harm then with a human. He was much stronger, more resilient then I was giving him credit for.

By losing myself to my thoughts like I had, I accidently let that part of me which I had been hoping I could keep restrained for a bit longer was able to seep out just a little. It wasn't much, but it was enough to blur my state of mind and let my instincts have more reign then I would ever have usually let them unless I was hunting. My senses leaped into hyperdrive; I could hear everything nearby, and my muscles were tense, quivering, beneath my marble skin. I was a predator waiting to pounce, and I knew that my 'prey' would be within striking range soon.

I heard him before he knew that I was in the bathroom. I could hear his heartbeat, and feel every wave of emotion inside of him. When he drew close, I could feel anger, hurt, and resentment rolling off of him and my eyes narrowed; my instincts roared, telling me to go and chase down whoever it was you had dared to hurt **_my mate_**. That could not be tolerated, but I was more interested in making him feel better.

I felt the spike of lust, and then heard his heartbeat becoming clearer as he made his way to the bathroom; I could hear his heavy footfalls, even as he tried to make them quieter. He was trying to sneak up on me; a feral grin ripped across my face; so the prey thought it was the predator? Well, I would show it it's true place...

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

There, we finish the third interlude, and now go and check out part three; because it has the delicious answer to what Jasper is planning to do; though I'm sure that everyone pretty much _**knows**_ what he's going to do. Wow, this is probably the most sex scenes I've ever written... there's actually three in part three, and there's going to be more down the line.

So, leave me a review? And for those reading this on , I posted this earlier because I needed to pose a question to you guys. Would you prefer if I posted the unedited version of part three there? Or should I cut out the sex scenes? I would rather not risk getting banned, but I'd like to know what all of my reviewers would prefer.

Thank you!

Twilight.


	7. IV The Dark Passion Play

**Notes:** The general consensus from the reviews that I received was that they wanted the uncensored version to be posted. Well, you got your wish and I have posted this in its entire, unedited content. And if I get in trouble for this, then I can fairly say that it's all on you guys okay? But you know what you're getting into, because I am giving you all fair warning, so you can't say that you didn't know it wasn't coming...  
**Parts:** Part IV [ The Dark Passion Play ]  
**Rating:** pg13 **[NOTE AT BOTTOM AS TO RATING CHANGE]**  
**Pairing:** Jasper/Jacob  
**Words: **9 921words  
**Disclaimer: **The Twilight series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own the characters or anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise.

**The Dark Passion Play**

I've never been a morning person, and the really long nights spent on patrols and days spent catching up on life were starting to take their toll. By the time my body woke up on its own, it was already past noon.

I snapped up, and my head made contact with the rock which had been leaning over me. Ow... no wait, that wasn't a rock...

"I don't think that was a great thing to wake up too." Cold hands gently took my throbbing head, stroking my hair and looking for any possible injuries that he might have caused. Jasper had stayed the night. "You don't need ice do you?" His voice sounded worried, and maybe even a bit guilty.

Now that the sharp pain had faded somewhat, I was able to think clearly. It wasn't the best way to wake up in terms of not giving me a concussion, but it did the job of waking me up pretty damn well. Though if there was any real damage there, it'd heal in an hour or two.

"Nah, I'm fine." Minus the throbbing headache.

He frowned, not seeming to believe me. I was relieved when he let the subject drop, "Well, if you're so sure..."

"Yeah, don't worry about it."

Breakfast consisted of some leftovers that were scraped together from the fridge and some groceries which Sue had left last night. Or, it could have been this morning; Billy was spending a lot more time with her then he did at home, but I really didn't care; as long as he was being taken care of, then I was fine with whatever arrangements he made.

I was self-conscious about how much I ate, though, because Jasper chose to sit across from me at the kitchen table and watched me. The only human, from what I understood, who he'd spent any considerable amount of time around was Bella, and that had probably left a much different impression of humans on him then the one that I was making. His scrutiny, though, wasn't judgmental, it was more like he was curious. And then it hit me; I had no idea how old he was.

That would be a bit of an awkward, not to mention sort of rude, question. But I was curious to know how old he actually was, and not how old he'd been when he'd been turned; which meant his biological age. I'd pegged him as somewhere in his late teens, and **_maybe_** early twenties, but that was pushing it. Though, knowing how old he was wasn't going to change anything about the relationship that we were developing.

Surprisingly, Jasper was pretty domesticated. He actually was the one who cleaned off the table and cleaned the dishes, which shocked me given that he was a vampire (which automatically made him a murderer to the rest of the pack, but the fact that I'd imprinted on him meant that I couldn't see that as being even a slight possibility). Though given that he'd probably did have to help with keeping that house of theirs clean was the reason behind it, but they didn't eat in the same sense that a human did, so that left the dish washing unexplained.

Bah, I didn't care; long as it got done.

There was supposed to be a pack meeting later today, to talk about the meeting where my life had taken a swerve down the really freaky road just off of weird. But I wasn't complaining about it anymore, not that I had really before. I was 'excused' from it, but since I'd come out of my dark little corner I knew that they'd be expecting me to be there; Sue would've spread the word.

I wasn't looking forward to it, because I didn't want to have to put up with the verbal beating that I'd be getting from Leah. How the rest of the pack was taking this was a complete mystery to me, but I knew that at least Embry and Quil wouldn't judge me, and Seth would be just to damn ecstatic about the whole damn thing. It was mostly the older members of the pack who I was worried about.

"Worried about something?" Shit, I forgot that he knew what I was feeling.

During the time that I'd been lost in thought, the two of us had wound up in the living room on the couch there. I had no idea how I could let him know what was on my mind, and I didn't even know what was and wasn't off-limits to him knowing. Well, he'd be around for as long as I was, so he'd probably figure it all out in that time. He had an eternity to do so, and I'd hopefully get the same. As long as I phased on a regular basis, then we'd be fine.

"You're doing it again." He poked my forehead gently, and I realized that my face had been scrunched up into an intense frown. That was probably what had gotten him concerned in the first place; after all, it's not a good idea to completely ignore someone if they ask you a question. I felt like a bit of a moron.

"Oops, sorry..." What should have been an awkward silence followed, but it was really hard to feel awkward around Jasper; there was just something about him that kept that from happening, no matter the situation.

I reached out and snagged the remote off the table, and turned the TV on, anxious to be distracted from the dark turn which my thoughts had been taking. Jasper's cold hand rested over mine, and gave it a comforting squeeze. And again, those waves that I'd felt earlier of comforting and warm love that only he was capable of giving me when I needed it; there were advantages to having imprinted on a vampire, their special gifts or talents came in handy.

Letting out a sigh, I lay down on the couch, throwing my legs over the arm rest and letting my head rest on his lap. Again, I was struck by just how hard his body was, but I didn't really care. Cold, elegant fingers ran through my hair, then traced down the side of my face and along my jaw; I shivered at the touch. With a simple flick of his wrist or fingers, and my head would be separated from my body.

Billy had been watching the news the night before, and no one had bothered to change the channel, which meant it was still on. They were running a feature on the newborn killings in Seattle, and asking for the public to come forward with any information that they might have on the disappearances of several young people, varying in age from fifteen to twenty-three.

Hm, this Victoria was choosing young. Jasper's fingers tensed for a moment, and I wondered whether or not if this was a sore issue for him. But then again, he did fall within that age range according to my estimation.

A heavy sigh slipped past his lips, and he took the remote from me, changing the channel. I was going to ask him about it, but the tense set of his shoulders when I looked up told me that it was a subject that wasn't open to discussion. It was either a very touchy subject with him, or it was something that he just wasn't willing to share with me, for what his reasons were.

His hand continued its tracing, running slowly down the side of my neck. As it passed over my face, I noticed a slightly raised half-circle on the inside of his wrist; it faintly shimmered in the light. Curious, I reached out and took his hand in both of mine, bringing the limb towards my face so that I could get a better look at it.

The half-circle that I'd noticed was part of a larger circle which encompassed most of his wrist. Looking at it closer, I realized that it was a scar from a bite. And now, I realized that there were more of this scars along his arm; going so far as to disappear under the sleeves of his sweater. I traced the pale, silvery sheen of the scar.

It was slightly raised from the skin, and mostly blended in with his pale skin; you'd only really notice them if he held his arm up to the light. The scars raised a number of questions, because they looked too much like the one that I knew marked Bella's hand from her encounter with that tracker over a year before. It left me wondering, how had Jasper gotten them.

While those scars might have been a huge turn-off to some, I found that they only enhanced that strength which I knew that he possessed. The more primitive, more wolf-like, side of me was incredibly attracted to these scars, because they demonstrated that my mate was most definitely extremely strong and capable of taking care of both himself and me, if ever it was needed.

I pressed my lips to the scar.

A shiver ran through him, and I pulled myself into a sitting position, tracing the rest of the scars with my mouth up his arm until the sleeve of his sweater stopped my exploration. Taking a chance to peek up at him, I pulled out the best puppy eyes that I could muster. There had to be more, because I doubted that they'd just be all over his arms.

"Are there more?" I didn't get a response, Jasper looked very hesitant to answer my question. This called for offensive action! I was going to get him to tell me, no matter what I had to do.

Leaning in dangerously close, our lips were only scant millimeters apart, I ran my hands down from his shoulders along his chest, feeling the rock hard muscles there. Then down his stomach to the hem of his shirt, where I paused for a brief moment, my eyes locking with his. Jasper's eyes were dark and smoldering with something that I couldn't place a name too, but it looked a lot like pure lust and it sent a strange thrill through me.

Slipping my hands under his shirt, I could feel his rock hard abs under my fingers. They tensed and I smirked; I could feel his lips lightly against mine. He'd leaned in. I had the advantage, though, my hands were the ones up his shirt; it would be easy enough to take off now.

It was easy enough for me to slide his shirt up and over his head, and I was surprised that Jasper complied by raising his arms. The sweater was tossed to the side, and I realized that there was a reason as to why he was wearing a turtle neck.

His scars which littered his arms extended across his shoulders and collar bone, as well as his neck. A few scattered ones marred the rest of his torso, but it was largely unmarked otherwise. I resumed my exploration of his battle wounds, at least, that's what I assumed that they were. I couldn't think of any other reason as to why he'd had them other then he'd acquired them through years of fighting other vampires; that had to be where all that experience he had on dealing with them came from.

Jasper let out a soft noise of content as I pressed my lips carefully (and innocently) against each bite that I came across. All of them were merely hard, raised bumps of cold flesh in the imprint of another leech's mouth, and I didn't like the idea of another's mouth being on him; whether it be in the way of a lover or that of an attacker.

Those pale hands of his were digging into the couch, leaving dents and maybe a few rips which Billy would probably ask about later. I looked up at him as I made my way down his torso and towards the waistband of the jeans he was wearing; his eyes were boring straight into mine the moment I did so.

The look on his face was priceless, and I couldn't help but give him a very mischievous grin; I went back to what I'd been doing before. I pressed my lips against the protruding bone of his hip, then it was just a little move to the side where the narrow V line of his hips made a small hollow. I gripped his thighs a tad tighter, having slid down the couch and onto the floor where I was kneeling and leaning over his lap. Tentatively, I flicked my tongue over the hollow.

A sharp gasp slipped past his lips.

* * *

**SEE UPDATED AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE CHAPTER.

* * *

**

"And what are you so happy about?" I asked a little sharper then I intended.

Jasper pulled back, propping himself up on his hands so that he could look down at me. He was still grinning, and he gently brushed some of my damp hair out of my face before responding, "I would say that having what has to be the best sex that I've ever had would make me very happy." He'd already pulled out of me, and I realized that I was dripping a bit onto the carpet.

Shit.

"Considering that was my first time having sex, I'd have to say that it was damn well the best sex I've ever had." My arms were still around his neck, so it was easy for me to pull myself up into a sitting position so that I could properly kiss him.

Just as his hand came up to cup my cheek and tilt my head to a better angle, there was the distinctive loud thud of the kitchen screen door hitting the wall. Both of us broke apart, and stared towards the kitchen, trying to make sense of the noises coming from it. I heard voices and was able to realize that it was Seth, Embry, and Quil.

Oh, and they were talking about how Jasper had shown up; apparently, they'd heard about it from Sue and Billy.

Double shit.

Surprisingly, Jasper was quicker to respond then I was. He'd already wiped the remaining cum off my stomach with his hand, and had started to pull my sweats back on over my legs. Realizing what he was doing, I shot to my feet and pulled them up before hauling ass for the kitchen (as a side note, my ass was a little tender from that pounding he'd given it). I didn't want them coming in and seeing me with a naked vampire on top of me, it wouldn't be good if two werewolves keeled over suddenly from heart attacks.

Luckily for me, I got there before they could reach the archway which would lead out into the hall and the family room.

Quil grinned, "The dead have arisen!"

"Shut it Quil."

Embry was staring at me and my half-naked self, and I realized too late that there'd probably be hickeys across my neck and collarbone. Shit, I was thoroughly fucked. An awkward silence followed as Quil noticed where Embry was staring, and just what it was that he was staring at; Seth was quick to follow their lead.

This silence was broken with a whoop from Seth who promptly threw his arm around my shoulders and said, "Jake finally got some!"

Which made me blush something horrible and Embry and Quil to look slightly horrified. At sixteen, I think I might have been just a little young in their books to already be developing a sex life of my own; and it was probably made worse by the fact that they'd be able to see said sex life the next time I phased. It wasn't something that any of them were going to be looking forward too.

I was surprised when Quil grinned, he turned to Embry and held his hand out, "You owe me ten bucks."

"Aw man...!"

Turns out they were betting on how soon I'd be having sex with Jasper, who just so happened to still be in the family room and could hear everything that was going on.

"Okay, I know you guys didn't come here to learn about who I'm having sex with," I shrugged out from under Seth's arm, "so why are you guys here?"

Embry cleared his throat, "There's a meeting, remember? Sam was planning on this after out first 'training session' with the lee - Cullens. We came by to see if you were coming, we figured that since that vampire's here, that you'd have come out of your cave and would be coming."

"Yeah, I'm coming, but after I take a quick shower." The feeling of drying bodily fluids down there was starting to become more then a bit uncomfortable, and I could tell that all of them could smell it. Quil and Embry tried to discreetly cover their noses, while all Seth did was wrinkle his a bit.

In a few minutes, I'd taken my shower, grabbed a clean pair of shorts, and was heading out the door with the guys. I hollered back a quick goodbye to Jasper, and then we were racing through the woods to the designated meeting place.

Everyone else was already there, and surprisingly still in human form. I guess that it was easier this way, and that no one really wanted to see what it was that I'd been up to last night and this morning and afternoon with my vampire. Judging by the looks on both Paul and Leah's faces, I still smelled of him. To me, though, it still smelled like vanilla. I guessed that it was an imprint thing.

Since I wasn't wearing a shirt, the hickeys that I was sporting were extremely obvious. Paul looked uncomfortable, but he didn't say anything to my relief; maybe Sam had finally laid into him, or it could've been the others. Frankly, I didn't care about who had given Paul the lecture and really laid into him on this issue, because it meant that I had one less pissed off pack member to deal with.

Sam was completely calm, and I got the feeling that he just largely didn't care about the whole thing. Probably as long as Jasper didn't cross any of the wrong lines, then he'd be fine with the imprinting; next to Seth, he was the most sympathetic one there. Jared was looking just a little uncomfortable, but I was pretty sure that he was understanding of the whole situation too. And I at least had my friends to fall back on if I needed them.

Lastly, Leah just looked like she'd pop a blood vessel at any moment. Her fists were tightly clenched to the point where it looked like her nails had dug into the skin, and she was shaking terribly. It was obvious that she was just barely hanging onto her control, and any little thing would cause her to snap.

"I think that we-"

"Traitor!" She hissed, completely disregarding Sam. Suddenly, I had a Leah's face shoved up into mine, her face twisted up into an ugly snarl. "Traitor, traitor, TRAITOR!"

Her hand pulled back, ready to punch me straight in the face; and she would have, if it wasn't for her brother looping his arms under her shoulders and pulling her back, restraining her. That didn't stop Leah from unleashing another verbal assault.

"What's wrong with you? Imprinting on **_that monster_**!" Leah struggled against her brother's hold, shoving her elbow into his nose. The force broke it, and Jared leapt in to help Seth restrain her, followed quickly by Embry and Quil. Seth fell back, nursing his now probably broken nose. "**_YOU TRAITOR_**!"

Her voice rang with a sense of finality, and anger that was surprising all of us, and I was suddenly very glad that the elected choice was for us to hold this meeting in human form. I'd hate to be feeling that pure loathing and anger that Leah was directing towards me. Of course, she wasn't done with her rant yet.

"You're endangering everyone, **_EVERYONE_**, here on the reserve by having him here! Don't think that I don't know about that slip up he nearly had with that leech-loving bitch! He can't control himself! You're risking all of our lives, and the humans', by having him here! You trai-!"

A very loud 'SMACK' shut her promptly up, and had us all staring at the sight in complete shock.

Seth had just slapped his sister. Hard. So hard that her head was turned to the side and she'd doubled over from the shock of it. He was breathing hard, and he looked pissed. Very, very pissed.

"Shut up Leah, you don't understand **_anything_**!"

I'd never seen Seth get mad, he was the most happy and outgoing person I knew. The kid just doesn't snap like that, and yet he just had on his sister. Now I was curious, there had to be something more going on here then just simple defending my imprint (which I was perfectly capable of doing myself).

"You'd defend that-!" Leah was still breathless from the slap.

"I said shut up!" Sam stepped him, placing a hand on Seth's shoulder to calm him, before giving a harsh glare to Leah. Yeah, you don't piss off the alpha, it's just not a good idea. EVER.

"That's enough!" Sam shot a warning look at everyone, and we all knew that the subject was never to be broached again; that was a direct alpha order, one that none of us could go against. There'd be no yelling at me like that for something that was completely out of my control.

"We only have a week in which to prepare for these newborns, and in that time, I expect that all of you will cooperate fully with **_all_** of the Cullens," Sam ordered. "And that includes the one that Jacob imprinted on, there won't be any accusing him of being a traitor, we all know too well that you can't help who you imprint on."

Leah grumbled and continued to glare at me, but she'd calmed enough for the guys to let go of her. I could practically feel her resentment simmering from where I stood, and I didn't even need Jasper's gift to know that this wasn't over, not by a long shot.

I was in for a long haul that didn't seem to have a pretty ending.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

The house would've probably been silent to a regular human, but my enhanced werewolf senses picked up on the soft sound of the shower going in the bathroom. At about that point, I think the rational part of my mind quit working; which had been reminding me that I should probably clean up the mess in the family room that we'd left earlier in the day. My mind was too busy focusing on the fact that: a) Jasper was in the shower, which would mean that he was naked; and b) that suddenly my shorts had become uncomfortably tight.

I think some credit goes to that idea involving vampires... you know, the one about how when you sleep with one you just want more and more. That one. Because, yeah, I was getting insatiable when it came down to sex. With him.

Though, I was finding it very difficult to care about the hell I'd gotten from the others about the hickies that he'd left behind from earlier in the day. Bah, Leah and Paul were the only ones who were stingy about the whole thing, so I wasn't going to let it get to me; it was a natural part of imprinting.

Following the scent which led into the bathroom, I had hoped to take him by surprise; and at first, I'd thought that I was successful. I got the door open, and was about to mentally celebrate my victory when I was pulled into the bathroom and promptly shoved up against the door. At about that point, I said goodbye to the remainder of my rational thought as Jasper's lips slid over mine in a scorching, but icy, kiss.

* * *

**SEE UPDATED AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE CHAPTER.

* * *

**

Oh yes, it had definitely been a long, but very good day.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

Whew, the part that took forever to be written. I got stuck on the confrontation scene with the rest of the pack, but thanks to Jen, I managed to get through it; you owe it to her for my getting this part done. Now, I just have to finish x-posting this, and then I'm going to either go to bed or start on the next part; all depends. And holy shit, I just broke my word count record... *in shock* This is... nearly ten thousand words long... hope the length makes up for the wait.

Anyways, here's your sex. I hope that you're all happy, because it was a lot of work; it's a labor of love to write this, especially when there's so much. Thanks everyone, hope you like it. :D

Comments and reviews are appreciated.

Twilight.

**EDIT AS OF 2010/09/03: **For those of you wondering why this chapter is pretty butchered up now and missing the more explicit parts, it was recently brought to my attention that there was a bot searching for stories that met certain requirements and was mass-reporting them. I checked it out, and apparently the stories that this bot turns up don't even go through a proof-reading stage before the reports are sent to site admin and are apparently deleted without being given a second look to make sure that the reasons given are why they're being deleted. I really don't want to have to delete my stories from this site completely and have to move to another, but too many things are happening that are giving me more and more shit for using this site. I'm looking into alternatives, and if you want to read the unedited version of this chapter – or any other story of mine – then please go to my LiveJournal where you can read it. You don't need to friend me or create an account to read it since it isn't f-locked, so go ahead and check it out there.

Thank you to everyone and I will keep posting my stories here despite the many issues I have.


	8. V Keep on Descending

**Notes:** Just to say, I really liked the house that the Cullens had in the Twilight movie. I'm hoping that by this point everyone has seen it, if only to say they have, because I don't think we ever got a full view of it. That way you get an idea of what it looks like. For those of you who don't know, this is the view of the front door.  
**Parts:** Part V [ Keep on Descending ]  
**Rating:** pg13  
**Pairing:** Jasper/Jacob  
**Words:** 4 488 words  
**Disclaimer:** The _Twilight_ series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise.

**Keep on Descending**

There was another meeting designated for tonight, and I was worrying over it. Mostly because I had no idea how his family would take it, that they wouldn't approve; they were so old that I thought that they might still be bound by the thinking of their day. Come to think of it, I actually had no idea of exactly how old any of them were, just that they were old. Now I had to start addressing them by name, cause I was now a member of their family, apparently.

I was sixteen, and already practically married. When you imprint, there's no point in trying to be intimate in any way with anyone else, it'll just feel wrong and you'll only wind up feeling very empty and hurt. Though, the idea of **_actual marriage_** was still a very scary thought.

Jasper spent most of the remainder of the day perched on my bed like a marble statue while I slept. Even though I'd slept so much today, I figured that it couldn't hurt to get a little more right now. With the advent of the summer holidays coming up, it meant that I'd probably be getting even less sleep then I'd been pulling during the school year. Besides, I was going to take advantage of the cold rock that I had as a pillow, because there was still the possibility that this wouldn't be much of a permanency.

He poked me awake around 3:30 AM. Neither of us had talked about what we were going to do, but Jasper seemed to have an idea. He kissed me once before telling me that he'd see me after tonight's meeting and training session.

I yawned and stretched once he'd left, going by way of my bedroom window, and then also climbed out the window and went to meet up with the others. Everyone was waiting for me, and Leah gave me an acidic glare when I sat down on a fallen tree between Seth and Quil.

Leah broke the silence, "Please tell me the leech lover isn't going to be phasing." Her tone of voice was bitter, angry, and full of resentment. Well, that I could understand. I wasn't too keen on phasing myself, because I'd much rather keep my new sex life a secret; it probably didn't help that I was prone to getting jealous when it came to Jasper.

Sam sighed, and we all knew immediately that he agreed with Leah without him having to say anything. I knew that it wasn't personal, it was just how they were, the vampires were still their mortal enemy, and my imprint wasn't going to change their minds. That was fine with me, I wasn't too keen on sharing any of the details with them. All I gave in response was a shrug.

"We'll have to trust them enough; since that mind-reading leech already knows who we are and what we look like, we'll phase back when we get close enough. But if there is going to be any training, then phase back. That's how this will go."

There wasn't much else that was said other then ironing out a few more details about what was going to go down tonight, and adding a few details to what our plan would be once the newborns had arrived. A lot of the details were worked out, since the tiniest leech had an idea of what they were planning, but it was sketchy at best, but she would keep her mind open so that she wouldn't miss anything.

The others phased when we headed for the designated meeting place, and we raced through the trees trying to beat each other as we went. I was the slowest, being the only one still in human form, and was the last to arrive when we stopped just a little shy of the clearing. All of the vampires were already assembled there, waiting for us. Everyone phased back into their human forms and pulled on the clothing which they carried with them.

I noticed that one of their mouths quirked upwards slightly when they saw us in our mismatched outfits. The blond bitchy one rolled her eyes and shot a disgusted scowl our way. She danced over to her huge husband and slipped her arms around his waist.

Bella was absent, which meant that her vampire was too. That left just the six of the vampires there, and the tiny pixie one was grinning wildly when she saw, more specifically me, and gave us a little wave of greeting. The motherly one smiled at us too, warmly, and the doctor did the same.

"Welcome back."

All of them knew what had happened, I was sure that Bella's vampire had told them, but the only one who seemed truly upset or pissed about it was the blond bitchy one; the others didn't really seem to care. Well, the big one was looking me over with a weird look in his eye and it made me curious about what was running through his mind at that moment. Since they all knew, I wasn't surprised when Jasper was at my side very suddenly.

He pressed his lips to my temple, whispering, "Watch tonight, and stay here after they're gone, please? I want to introduce you."

Leah shot me a dirty look, but I just smiled back at him and nodded. If I wasn't screwed already, then might as well dig myself my own grave. Jasper smiled at me and gave my temple one last kiss before he disappeared from my side to rejoin his family. Embry elbowed me in the side, hard, when I stared after him. There was an advantage to being a werewolf, you could follow movements that the normal human eye couldn't follow, I could see, and it was very... pleasant.

The meeting dragged on, and we spent the majority of it listening and watching again, but towards the end, we were allowed to participate. Since Emmett made for the best example of how a newborn would attack, Jasper had us go up against him to test what we'd learned so far. I got the feeling that this was more of an effort for both our sides to familiarize ourselves with each other's styles and moves; that was something that would make Sam very uncomfortable. But the blond bitchy vampire didn't look too happy about this either.

When the meeting and training session was finished, the doctor and Sam made plans to hold two more meetings later in the week, once school was done for us. Since the last day was on Tuesday, we'd be fine for a meeting on Wednesday night, and another on Thursday to make our last minute plans on how we were going to deal with these newborns. And how we were going about to protecting Bella, because she was obviously the target.

While they were doing that, Jasper drifted back over to my side, sitting down beside me on the grass (and he did this **_gracefully_**, mind you). He wasn't looking at me, rather his eyes were wandering over the other members of his coven, almost as though he was evaluating them for their possible reactions to this.

"Rosalie has been dealing with this the worst," he suddenly said, bringing me out of my train of thought. "Everyone else has taken it well enough, and Emmett, well, he's taking it as his opportunity to get back at me for all those fights he's lost."

I was already familiar enough with their names to start putting them to faces. Evidently Rosalie had to be the blond bitch, since she so clearly demonstrated her utter hatred of our kind, and since Emmett had already been named, I knew his name too.

"He loses a lot?"

"In battles of sheer strength, no, but when it comes to actual fighting like this, I've always easily defeated him. I think he's still bitter about that first one, though."

"First one?"

"When Alice and I first joined them, the first thing that Emmett did was challenge me to a fight. It was probably because he was curious, I show up out of nowhere, covered in the only scars that our kind can get, and he wanted to test out his strength. Of course, his loss was amusing and extremely foreseeable."

I wasn't so much afraid about meeting the rest of the Cullen family on much more personal terms, more like I was just a little anxious about how they'd take it. It's a lot to understand, because of just how complex the manner of imprinting is. My dad knew about it and how it worked, so he'd been able to take it a lot easier then anyone else. His family wouldn't have that benefit, and it was making me nervous.

Rosalie, aka the blond bitch from hell, was probably the worst of my problems though. So far she'd made it no mystery that she clearly despised us and wanted nothing to do with us; but if she wanted her family, more specifically her husband, to make it through this then she'd have to deal.

"This is fine with you, right?" Jasper's face was suddenly much closer to mine, to the point where I could feel his cool breath on my face.

My desire for him spiked up sharply, and I blushed, cause I knew that he'd be able to sense just so wasn't fair that he could do that to me with so little effort. But when imprints were fresh, the feelings that went with them were so raw and powerful that they were hard to resist. It would take time for us to come down into the much more settled and calm relationship that Emily and Sam had.

I was startled out of my thoughts by his cold hands on my face. He smiled at me before pressing his lips firmly against mine. He pushed me down onto the grass, and kissed me senseless within the course of just a few minutes.

But we didn't get to go any further because then Jasper pulled away from me and was pulling me back to my feet with a mischievous smirk on his face. That didn't bode well. It**_really_** didn't bode well.

What really sucked was that I couldn't keep up with him when I was stuck in human form like this, that was a huge drawback. But we weren't supposed to be doing any fighting against vampires in this form, that was reserved for our wolf forms. This meant that I had to rely on him, and he swept me up into his arms to carry me bridal style when it was obvious that I wouldn't be able to keep up with him.

Let me tell you, it was a surreal experience. I'd gotten used to running, and running fast, but this was a completely different experience all together. The forest was a giant blur as we streaked through it, but you couldn't even tell that Jasper was running because of just how smooth he was moving it was like he was walking. He was completely at ease, and I felt exhilaration rolling off of him in waves.

It only took just a little under five minutes to reach the Cullens' house. Only, it wasn't so much of a house as it was more of one of those fancy places that you'd expect a movie star or rich businessman to live in; not a family of vampires. There was a lot of glass, and a small flight of flat stone steps led up to the front entrance, which was basically a wall of glass. It was a lot more open then I would've thought.

They never cease to surprise me.

"Um, you can put me down now Jasper."

We were already on the second step by the time I realized that I was still in his arms. I could feel my face heat up. I did not want his family to see him carrying me like this; I was perfectly capable of walking on my own thank you very much!

Jasper's smirk grew, and he set me on my feet, but then had to give me one of those kisses of his that was completely innocent, though it promised something more for later. The kiss was brief, and he pulled back only seconds later.

It didn't help my arousal one bit, and I let him know that.

"If you keep doing that, you're not getting any later." An empty threat, and we both knew it. Jasper could get into my pants whenever he wanted right now, and I'd let him. The idea of that made me blush, but nothing killed the mood quicker then my nervousness about meeting his family.

"Oh, you know that I can seduce you into practically anything," he shot back playfully. He took my hand in his and led me up the stairs, and opened the glass door which led inside.

I made sure that I was standing just a little behind him so that I was following him in.

For a short while, I thought that the place was completely empty, but then I realized that there were two vampires in front of me. One of them was the tall male that I recognized as being the leader, which meant that he was Carlisle Cullen, the doctor.

The other one was shorter with waves of caramel colored hair and looked like the mothering type. You know, the kind who has that really kind and nice aura around them that you just can't deny that they're a good person. For a moment I couldn't remember her name, but then I put the description that Bella had given me to her, and it clicked; Esme Cullen. Okay, this wasn't too intimidating. As long as I remembered their names then I'd be fine.

Esme greeted me first. Since there was no need for not trying to scare me or upholding the pretense of being human, so she was in front of me in seconds, I knew what they were and how they're nature. Her smile was huge and warm, "It's a great pleasure to meet you, we haven't been properly introduced yet. My name is Esme Cullen."

Again, my cheeks warmed up and I looked down at my feet, suddenly very nervous. But I managed to gather together my manners and reply, "It's nice to meet you too, I'm Jacob Black."

"Of course, Bella has mentioned you a few times, but it's really great to meet you in person." Just by the look in her dark gold eyes I could tell that she liked me already. I don't think that she had it in her to hate anyone just because of what they were or because of how they smelled; she gave me no reason to be afraid of her.

"Um, thanks."

"It's nothing, but let me be the first to welcome you to the family." And then she hugged me.

I was shocked, and it took me a moment to realize just what it was that she was doing. And when I had, she'd already released me and stepped away, still smiling at me. The blush came back with a vengeance, and Jasper chuckled, which broke the tension.

"I'm sorry. Was I too forward?"

"No. It's fine... I just wasn't expecting it." I didn't want to hurt her feelings, not after she'd shown me such a warm welcome. She probably didn't understand what had truly conspired or even the consequences of what was going on, but I was grateful for her hospitality and acceptance. It made things much easier for me.

Carlisle was next, and he was a little more wary then Esme had been. He extended my hand with a similar smile to his wife's, "I'm Carlisle Cullen, just Carlise will do, and it's a great pleasure to meet you at last Jacob."

His hand was cold and hard, like marble, but I'd been expecting that. After a brief handshake he released my hand and stepped back to stand beside his wife. Absently, I noticed that they were holding hands now, just like Jasper and I were.

"Ha! I knew it!"

There was a blur of black hair and pale skin, and then I was knocked to the floor with the force with which the tiniest Cullen had tackled me. Well, it wasn't so much a tackle as it was a bear hug. I hadn't been expecting it, and she packed a lot of strength for being so small; I nearly had the wind knocked out of me when she hit.

She was all smiles and apologies as she let me up, and giggled, probably at my stupefied expression. Out of all of them, I hadn't expected her to be so enthusiastic about meeting me. In fact, I'd thought she'd hate me or something, or at least have some form of dislike for me, so her greeting had shocked the hell out of me.

"Sorry..." she said sheepishly once we were both back on our feet and in the correct standing positions. I would probably have bruises from where she'd connected with me;**_she was hard_**! She was balancing on the balls of her feet like a tiny dancer. "Anyways, I'm Alice, and I'm so glad that I finally get to meet you Jake! I'm sure that we'll get along great!"

I blinked, I hadn't expected her to start using my nickname so soon. I hadn't even been sure that any of them would use it at all.

"Um... sure?"

They all laughed at my confused expression and hesitant answer. Really, anyone acting like Alice was doing something illegal, because you just can't imitate her, she's a one of a kind person. And while I could tell already that we were going to get along just fine, I just knew that there was also going to be a lot of awkward conversations in the future that would extract my embarrassment.

Alice quickly engaged me in conversation, she was asking something about what was in my closet, and so I very dimly aware of Carlisle asking Jasper to go with him to talk about something in private. I didn't make anything of it, but I hated that he was leaving me to his family's whims. Now I was feeling a little abandoned.

"... obvious when this is all done you can come with me and Bella and we can all go shopping in Seattle! You'll come, right?"

"Uhh..."

"Please?"

"... fine."

"Yo I heard the pup was here!" Ack! More vampires! I was so uncomfortable and nervous.

"Emmett please behave!" Alice reprimanded the broad-shouldered and heavily muscled vampire who had just joined us.

Emmett, obvious, eyed me up and grinned. He looked like the brawny type, but also the kind who'd make some pretty lame or cheesy jokes that would get annoying very quickly. Somehow, Esme had conveniently disappeared, I think she'd gone to talk to the last member of their family who was avoiding me like the plague.

"So... Jacob right? Who pitches and who catches?"

Hang on, did he just imply what I think he did?! And what was with the obvious baseball references? I'd just walked into a minefield, because I definitely did not want to talk about my sexual escapades with Jasper with two of his family members who were looking way to eager about hearing about all of this.

"That's... that's really not your business." I blushed, which seemed to give away the answer, because Alice nodded to herself.

"Obvious Emmett, Jake here catches and Jasper pitches," she replied, grinning. Oh this was not going to end well, I could tell.

Already I was horribly embarrassed, and it got worse from there. I had Alice grilling me for information on my sex life, and Emmett cracking jokes about it and my sexual orientation (which was really homosexual it was more like... Jasper-sexual? God that sounded wrong, even in my head). And I was flustered and not even sure what I was saying anymore, all I was aware of was that my cheeks now had a constant burn in them and were probably flaming red right now.

Jasper! Help?!

Finally, the interrogation seemed to be cooling down as Esme came back into the room looking rather apologetic. She was quick to push Alice and Emmett away from me and scolded them for their poor behavior and treatment of a gust.

"I'm so sorry Jacob, sometimes they get like that. Alice is just a pervert, and Emmett has such an odd sense of humor, I'm so sorry that they targeted you." She placed her arm around my shoulders and frowned sternly at the both of them, and neither of them had the decency to even look guilty.

Jasper and Carlisle reentered the room, the latter looking much more cheerful then when I'd last seen him. I had no idea what they had been talking about, but I was glad. This meant that I was safer then I'd been before.

Of course, then Emmett had to make one more crack as he and Alice were ushered out of the room, "Oh, Jacob! You should come play baseball with us! Jazz has great ball handling and he's great with the bat!"

I clapped my hands over my mouth, shocked at his nerve to say something like that not only in front of both of his 'parents' but in front of Jasper. Now I was so totally embarrassed that I just wanted to crawl into a dark hole somewhere and die. Was this torture over yet?! I didn't think that I'd be able to handle anymore.

Which led to me doing the closest thing, which happened to my hiding behind Jasper to protect me as both exiting vampires called out some other rather obscene things other their shoulders as they left. Oh God, I'd never be able to live this down!

This was just too much, and Jasper knew it. Carlisle smiled at us and nodded, "I'll make sure that they know not to repeat that."

"Thank you Carlisle."

Carlisle left after his wife and the two misbehaving vampires, which left us alone in the large room. I had no idea what was going to happen next, but I was still keyed up after that confrontation with the rest of his family. If I was going to ever have to put up with that on a regular basis, then I think I would've been better off with never having gotten out of bed this morning.

"Do you want me to give you the grand tour?"

I nodded, anything to distract me from that disaster!

The first floor was pretty simple in layout, a small sitting area arranged around what had to be one of the most expensive TVs I'd ever seen with a hugely extensive entertainment system. Then there was a kitchen that would make any home chef envious, a completely empty room that only had a grand piano in it on a raised platform, and a small sort of clinic like room that Carlisle sometimes used.

On the second floor were bedrooms, Rosalie's and Emmett's was first on the right when we climbed the staircase, and Carlisle's study was on the left a little further down the hall. Then there was Alice's room beside Rosalie's, and Jasper's was the last on the right. It was just before the staircase which led up to the third floor where Edward's room was.

His room was huge, and wrapped around about halfway around the back of the house. Surprisingly, it wasn't that clean, books were stacked messily near a white leather couch that looked rather worn in places. I guessed that it had been his for a while. The rest of the walls were covered with floor to ceiling bookshelves, excluding the wall of glass which ran along the right side of the room and the back. The floor was a dark mahogany, with a carpet, in a sort of light gray shade, under the couch and spread across much of the middle of the room.

I could see a modern bathroom through an open door at the far end of the L-shaped room. A laptop lay closed near another stack of books and what looked like a textbook of advanced calculus. On top of that was a pair of those DJ over the ear headphones; they looked extremely expensive. Now that I had a better view, I could also see a few stacks of CDs behind the couch.

Curious, I went over to check them out and see what he had. Jasper knelt on the couch, arms over the back of it as he watched me.

"I should probably give Edward back the ones I borrowed," he commented off-handedly. "Though, I don't think he's noticed that they're missing yet."

"Very funny Jasper," Edward's voice came from the doorway, and I looked up to see him leaning casually against the door frame. His expression was one of relaxed, well I wanted to say contentment, but I couldn't sure. "I'd say it would be more of an apathetic one, I could really not care either way, but I think that this has worked out well."

Before either of us could react, Edward raised a hand, "Don't take that the wrong way, all I'm saying is that at least the both of you are happy, and that's what matters. I may not know you well, Jacob, but I'm willing to give you a chance." He held out his hand, just like Carlisle had.

Slowly, I stood up and walked over to him and accepted it. If he was going to make the effort to try and give me a chance as a friend, then I'd take it. Edward obviously cared for his family very much, and I loved Jasper, so I would do anything for him that would keep him happy.

Things were starting to look up for me, and I was hoping that there wouldn't be anything that would happen in the future that would change any of that. I didn't want to have to see Jasper hurt, nor did I ever want to think about any way in which I could cause him harm. Too bad the future wasn't being very nice to us.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

If this took too long and seems rushed at the end, then I'm really sorry. I wanted to get this finished in time for me to get to bed at a half-decent hour because I still have school for whatever reason tomorrow, and I want to at least be half-awake. I need to use the first two periods to finish the Biology homework which I didn't do. I hope he doesn't take it in, because otherwise I'd be screwed over. Badly.

Anyways, since I have Spring Break, I may be able to get the next chapter of this out during that time, or at least get pretty far into it. But I do want to complete Poison as soon as I can to get it out of my hair. I love that story, but an author has to know when to put something to bed.

On that note, out of sheer curiosity, would any of you be interested in reading a Jazz/Jake mpreg story? I'm thinking of writing one, and I want some feedback on it, so comments would be much appreciated.

Enjoy! Please review or comment.

Twilight.


	9. VI Dreamer's Hideaway

**Notes:** A good idea to break writer's block is to go and do some reading. Since I finally got my copy of _Eclipse_ back from my friend, I decided to reread it since I'd had a lot of writer's block on this story. As well, since I started writing this during the week of my finals (and all of them were in the same week), I don't know when the next update will be, but there will be more details in the bottom author's note. (And does anybody really read these?)  
**Parts:** Part VI [ Dreamer's Hideaway ]  
**Pairing:** Jasper/Jacob  
**Words:** 7 201 words  
**Disclaimer:** The _Twilight_ series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own anything but the strange circumstances that I slap her characters into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise.

**Dreamer's Hideaway**

Since I wasn't allowed to phase, Jasper was starting to get just a little worried about me and whether or not I'd be prepared for the battle with the newborns. But nothing he said to Sam would convince him to let me phase just to practice. None of them wanted to see what was in my mind right now. Though, I had to admit that if I was in their shoes I'd probably be for their decision one hundred percent.

With school finished and out for the summer, I was able to spend more time with Jasper. And since I'd been relieved from active patrol duty until the fight it meant that I could catch up on all the sleep that I'd been missing trying to keep up with both him and the pack. I'd been exhausted before, but it was nothing that I wasn't used to; I mean, I'd been running on little more then two hours a sleep for two days when the Cullens had left. But that was a dark time that I never thought about.

Jasper was putting off hunting for as long as possible, and his eyes were an almost black when I got home from the latest strategy meeting. I hadn't noticed the slight changes which marked just how thirsty he was becoming; for one, his eyes darkened, they were now a shade closer to black, and the bruises which I'd noticed under his eyes before were considerably more bruise-like.

Luckily for us, Alice had pinpointed exactly when the newborns were going to arrive, and that was in two days. It didn't give any of us much time, and both Jasper and I knew that he would have to leave tonight if he wanted to hunt down enough game to be as strong as possible tomorrow. The other problem, was Jasper himself and his own overprotective nature.

We were sitting on the couch, the TV again turned down so low that it was almost too quiet for me to hear it, with his head resting in my lap as I ran my hands through his hair. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was soft, even.

"Edward is sitting the fight out; Bella wants to keep him with her," Jasper began.

"Really? And how is he taking that?" From what little I knew of Edward, I didn't think that he'd be one to sit out a fight like this so easily; he enjoyed the thrill of it as much as we did, though, Emmett was probably the most enthusiastic.

"Better then I expected he would."

"You're getting at something, what is it?" I didn't trust Jasper completely when he danced around issues like this, mostly because he didn't do it very often. Something was up, definitely.

He sighed, "It's... I don't want you to be there."

"And why is that?" It did hurt. I felt that he had no faith in me or my ability to fight against these creatures, and that was painful. Jasper was overprotective to the point where it made me feel like he didn't believe in me.

Another heavy sigh, "I don't want to see you hurt, and the fact that you haven't received any training... I'm just worried. I've been told that I do that too much, I'm sorry about it. Edward wants a connection to the pack... I want you to stay with him and Bella, and not Seth, that way, I know that you're safe."

"No."

"Jake, please-" He sat up and reached for my face.

I crossed my arms across my chest and glared right back at him, "No way am I staying somewhere while you risk your life against a bunch of crazed and violent newborn vampires. I don't care if you've had nearly a century of experience fighting them, it doesn't change how I feel."

His hands cupped my face gently and he leaned in so that our foreheads were resting against each other. I could feel his breath on my lips, and it was making my concentration, and my willpower, waver but I wasn't going to let him talk me out of it, not this.

"There isn't anything that I can say that will make you stay?" I knew what went unsaid, _I'll do anything to make you stay, just so you're safe._

"No, because _**I'll**_ worry about you if I'm not near you," I admitted. "I don't want to be away from you, or I'll freak about whether or not you're okay... so please, don't do that to me. Plus, I don't think Edward would like me too much if I was constantly worrying over you and whether or not you're still alive. He'll have enough on his mind without needing to deal with me. The others don't need that either."

Jasper sighed, and I could smell victory. I smiled at him.

"I don't like it."

"You don't have too," I replied, then reassured him. "I'll be careful, though, promise."

That was a lot I was asking for, and it went against Jasper's better judgement (and he was being more rational about this) to let me be there. His concentration was going to suffer for it, he'd be very concerned about me and my well-being. It was stupid and selfish of me, but I wasn't going to let it bother me too much.

"But..."

Uh oh, that didn't sound too good, "But what?"

"Edward was wondering if you could possibly help him out. Since no one other then me finds your scent at all appealing, he's hoping that if you were to carry Bella to the place where they're going to wait out the fight, that no one will sniff her out. Edward will, of course, take a much longer route to get there.

"He wants to take her out Friday night, and she'll lay a false trail leading to the clearing to make sure that none of the newborns follow your trail or go into town looking for her."

I hadn't spent any time with Bella since I'd imprinted, and the few times that she'd called about it I'd told her that I was busy with preparations and such. She hadn't completely bought any of my excuses, I knew her well enough to know that much. But the fact that she hadn't randomly turned up on my doorstep told me a lot about just how worried she was about all of this, and probably about Edward. She and I were now in very similar situations, except that I was just a little better equipped to defend myself, but I was still very fragile in comparison.

"The weather for this weekend's gonna be shit, she'll freeze out there," I reprimanded. Then I realized something. "You're hoping she'll be able to convince me to stay."

"It's a small hope, I'll admit."

"I've made up my mind, Jasper, I'm going to be there. You can't change that, and you're a lot more important to me then Bella. If you can't convince me, then there's no way in hell that she could."

A small, sad smile turned up the corners of Jasper's lips, "You still love her, even if it isn't what it used to be. That much is true."

I couldn't meet his eyes, because deep down I knew that it was the truth too. Sure, I didn't love Bella as deeply as I had before the imprinting, but it didn't change how I felt. I just recognized better who and what I couldn't live without. Jasper was infinitely more important to me then Bella was, but it didn't change the fact that I still loved her. I hated how complicated things had to be, but that was just how they were, and it was better this way too.

"I love you more." It was true, and I didn't really need to say it, but I did anyway. If I said it, then it made it sound truer, and it made me feel better about it all.

"I know." He still loved Alice, but it was a different sort of love, and theirs (as I understood) had always been much more different then anyone else's in the Cullen family. For me and Bella, it was different. We both loved each other, but there was no way that we could ever be together; not when we belonged to someone else. She belonged to Edward, and I belonged to Jasper, I just wished that it was that simple.

"Doesn't change anything, even if I do love her, she can't make me stay either. Like I said, if you can't make me stay, then neither can she."

Jasper sighed, and nodded. I could still feel his breath on my lips, he hadn't pulled back at his soft spoken confirmation. He wasn't sharing me with her, but it somehow felt like he was. That thought hurt much more then I think it probably should have.

He frowned, feeling my conflict and pain, "Is something wrong?"

"There's no competition, you know that, right?" I chewed my lip and waited for his response.

Jasper smiled, pressing his lips to mine quickly before he pulled back, "I do. It's the same for me, there won't be anyone else, ever."

Both of us knew that Billy would be home shortly, he was spending a lot of time with Sue to help her with Seth and Leah, but that didn't really matter. Jasper pushed me carefully back onto the couch, his lips were almost touching mine and his breath ghosted over my lips. His hand was cold and firm on my chest, allowing no room for argument.

When I was on my back, Jasper pressed his lips to mine, much more carefully then before. His hunger was affecting him, we both knew that but it didn't change anything. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pulled him down.

Jasper settled into the place between my legs, pressing me down as he slid a hand up under the thin tee I was wearing, the other hand went around my waist. His expert fingers easily charted out the skin he found under my shirt, tracing the outlines of my muscles.

Shivers raced through me at his touch, still startling after all this time. It just felt weird, the thrill from feeling just how different his skin was to mine. He was like ice, while I was like fire. Actually, his touch was oddly refreshing; everyone else just seemed to make the heat from my skin seem a lot worse.

Pulling away from me, Jasper lips lightly traced along my jaw and down my neck, leaving a trail of goose-bumps in their wake. His mouth stopped over the crook of my neck, he stopped there, softly biting down on the flesh; hard enough to leave a mark but not too hard so as to break the skin. We still had no idea of what would happen if his venom met my blood, and he wasn't going to take any chances with me.

There was the possibility, always, that it wouldn't do anything, but there was that slight probability that it could kill me and Jasper wouldn't take that risk. He was just being overly careful, and that took quite a bit of control. I think he put his brother to shame on this issue; Jasper and I were having sex, while Edward hadn't gotten that far with Bella. It meant that Jasper had more control over his blood lust and his darker tendencies. Or at least I thought so.

It was the noise of a car pulling up on the gravel driveway beside the house broke the intimacy of the moment. Slowly, Jasper removed his face from my neck, retracing the path down with his lips before he pressed another kiss to my lips, stealing my breath from me.

"You like doing that, don't you?" I asked him, breathless as he let me sit up.

"What can I say?" Jasper asked, his tone light, amused. "I like how your lips feel against mine."

I would've rolled my eyes at him, if it wasn't for Billy opening the door and calling out, "Jake! I'm home, you hungry? Sue brought something to eat."

"Uh, yeah! I'll be right there." Turning back to Jasper, he smiled at me. "You going to stay?" I quickly added, "You're always welcome here, you know."

"Yes, I know that," Jasper replied, standing up. "But I really need to get hunting if I want to return by Friday evening."

I frowned, "But the fight's not till-"

"I want to get back sooner, we all do, but I want to because I want to see you before the fight; just to reassure myself that you're still alive."

"You worry too much."

He smiled, "Actually, I think 'possessive' is a better description in your case."

With that, he was gone, I heard the sliding door which led off the family room to the small porch open and click shut as he left.

Seth stuck his head in, he'd obviously heard the end of our conversation and Jasper's exit, "He's not staying?"

I shook my head and stood up, heading for the kitchen, "No, he's gotta go hunting before the fight; he's been putting it off for a while now."

"Ah," Seth nodded and we headed back into the kitchen where Sue was setting an already made dinner (complete with werewolf proportions) out on the table and the counters. Billy was sitting in the chair positioned at the head of the table. Seth and I sat down at the far end, while Sue slipped into the one on Billy's right, between him and me.

"Everything in place?" Sue asked.

Seth nodded, swallowing his mouthful of food, "Yep, everything's set!"

The kid was surprisingly enthusiastic despite the fact that he was supposed to stay behind with Collin and Brady on the reserve. He wasn't too happy about that, he didn't want to be cut out of all the action, but we didn't know if the newborns would all follow Bella's scent to the clearing; there was still the chance that some of them would head for Forks and then to reserve. It was better to be prepared.

"What about Isabella?" Sue asked. "She isn't staying in town during all of this, is she?"

I knew the answer to this one, "No, I'm supposed to take her into the mountains where we'll meet up with Edward; she'll spend the night there and during the fight."

"Alone?"

Thinking about Seth's longing to be involved with the fight gave me an idea, I grinned, "No. Edward's going to be staying with her, but..."

"Hm?"

"Edward wants a connection with the pack, so that he knows what's going on. Seth can be cell phone since he wants to be helpful so much."

It worked for me, because it meant that I wouldn't be stuck with Bella and Edward during the fight (and that was the last thing that I wanted to happen, since it would just be really, really awkward). And Seth got to be just a little closer to the action then he would if he was stuck in La Push. Well, I thought it was a great idea. Sure I'd have to talk it over with Sam, but as the second of the pack, I could still order them around; to a degree of course.

Seth didn't like it so much, but I could tell that it made Sue happy. It meant that she had one less child to worry about. Billy agreed with me that it was a necessity for Bella and Edward to have some form of communication with the rest of us, or else they wouldn't know when it was safe to come back; and with the freezing weather and snow that was going to roll in over the weekend, it was better if Bella spent as little time out in the isolated wilderness as possible.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

Without patrols or training to keep me busy, and without Jasper to distract me, I spent a lot of time bugging Billy just by being around. Apparently I was acting like a kicked puppy, the way I was hovering over him sometimes, and it was beginning to annoy him, not to mention worry him.

Reassuring him did pretty much nothing since he didn't buy any of my bogus lies anyway. It was really obvious that I needed **_something_** to do to keep me occupied. I'd never dealt to well with boredom, and everyone else was pretty much busy because of the upcoming battle, but I was at least included in on the planning (which was done by this point).

I'd deal with the lack of stuff to do cause I only had to wait until that evening until I had at least one thing to do. I wasn't looking forward to it, mostly because I knew that I couldn't lie very well to Bella and that she'd probably easily pick up on the fact that something was bothering me. She was too perceptive for her own good sometimes, she'd make a frightening vampire.

Funny how easily I could see her as one now. My entire perspective on her imminent change had done almost a complete one-eighty within a few days, all because I'd imprinted. Sure, I still wasn't sure about what she'd be like when she did make the change, I didn't know if she'd still be the Bella I knew, but since I'd gotten to know the Cullens a little better, I knew that they were probably better then a lot of humans out there. For instance, I knew that Carlisle hated to kill, and was adverse enough to the entire situation that we faced now.

All of them had developed a conscience in the world that they'd been thrust into, and not very many of them had been given the choice about whether or not they wanted it. Each of them had made the best out of the hand they'd been dealt, and had come together out of a similar need for others who were different and shared their view.

I felt a little bit like an outsider when I was around them.

So really, I couldn't begrudge Bella the fact that she wanted to become one of them, not only so she could spend forever with the man that she loved more then anything, but also so that she wouldn't continue to be a weakness to them. I couldn't help but be jealous of her, because she was obviously so much more of a member of their family then I was.

Hell, some of the cryptic remarks she'd made to Edward during some of the meetings told me that she knew more about Jasper and his past then I did. That really hurt.

I was being gloomy and depressing, so it wasn't surprising that Billy took off again to spend more time with Sue, leaving me alone at home. I thought about going back to bed, catching up on the sleep that I hadn't gotten the night before. But I quickly nixed that idea because I'd probably over sleep and would miss Edward's call to tell me when to meet him and Bella in the clearing.

But also, Jasper had promised that he'd back earlier. I'd take a few moments with him before I'd leave.

Maybe I could bug his life story out of him, but I doubted that I'd be able to get it out of him easily, he just didn't seem too comfortable with the subject and I never wanted to push him. I'd always told myself that when Jasper was ready, he'd tell me. I was just a little jealous that Bella probably knew more about him then I did, but then again, she'd known him for longer. The jealousy was unfounded too, I knew deep down that I had absolutely nothing to be worried about.

Cold arms wrapped around my shoulders and I felt a smooth cheek pressed against my ear, "I wasn't gone for that long, you don't have to be so depressed about it."

I would have started if it wasn't his voice which greeted my ears. Jasper was very good at sneaking up on people, especially me. Often times though it was because I wasn't really paying attention, but I was pretty sure that he could manage it, even if I was intent on spotting him. The guy's stealthy, like a ninja. I was very glad that he could only read my emotions and not my mind; I'd be embarrassed to no end.

"It's an imprinting thing," I responded, leaning back into his touch.

He seemed interested, "How so?"

"You're not supposed to leave me alone right now, I might do something stupid."

"I don't see how that's possible," he replied easily. "You've already done some really stupid things, like wanting to be alone with me so much."

I rolled my eyes, "You already de-virginized me, I don't think that I have that much more to lose due to my doing stupid things."

Jasper raised his eyebrows, "You didn't seem to mind that at the time, I'm sorry, was it not how you'd envisioned it?"

Well that was a no-brainer. Up until I'd imprinted, I'd always thought that I'd lose my virginity to Bella, or some other girl, probably the one that I imprinted on. I'd never thought that it would be a **_guy_**, much less a vampire. I didn't regret my choices though.

"It wasn't exactly how I'd pictured it, but things change. It's not something I regret." Billy didn't know, I'd been rather meticulous about making sure that everything was clean so that Billy wouldn't figure out that his son wasn't 'untouched' anymore. I think that would probably give my poor dad a heart attack.

"That's good." He pressed his lips to my temple. "I was a little worried, I thought that you'd want to wait."

I shrugged, "Doesn't really matter, I don't think it's really that big of a deal." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't exactly true either. The truth was that I'd never really thought about it. Maybe sixteen was a little young to be having a sex life, but it didn't really matter to me; I trusted that Jasper would take good care of me.

"If you say so..."

"How was your hunting trip?" I tugged on his arm, and Jasper easily leaped over the back of the couch, arms staying around my shoulders.

"Mm, it was fine, I may have annoyed Emmett just a little. He's used to competition, but I was more concerned with feeding and coming back as soon as possible."

"Competition?"

Jasper nodded, pulling me into his lap, "He and I usually compete over who can catch the biggest prey."

"What did you catch this time?"

"We didn't go too far," Jasper's arms had slipped down to my waist. "So we stayed closer then we usually do to hunt. Even though the time of the attack is very much set, Carlisle would rather that we stay close just in case something changes. The prey wasn't what I'm used too."

I pouted, crossing my arms, "You're avoiding my question. I wanna know what you caught."

"Oh, I'm sorry," he replied. "It was mostly deer, and one or two hares. There really wasn't much to choose from, and you don't complain very much when you're as thirsty as I was."

I turned my head enough to see his eyes, they were a bright, warm shade of gold today; a stark contrast to the pitch black they'd been when I'd last seen him. His eyes didn't exactly go with his hair, I thought that he'd looked better with darker eyes, it seemed to suit him better then this color.

My curiosity got the better of me, "What color were your eyes when you were human?"

Jasper froze for a moment, and I worried that I'd overstepped some unspoken boundary between us. We hadn't talked about his past, whether it was it as a human or vampire, and I'd never been sure if he'd ever talk about it with me. I was the one person who had no bias on who he'd been or where he'd come from. That was probably how I couldn't see him as a murderer or a killer, I only saw him as the man who loved me, and the one that I loved. We were meant to be, and that was how it was.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry, I'm just-"

"No, it's alright," Jasper replied, his voice much softer then usual. "You have every right to be curious, you only know me as I am now, you don't know anything about my past or... what I've done." The last part was said so quietly, that I almost missed it.

I waited patiently, hoping strongly that he would tell me.

Jasper kissed my neck, lips trailing along the side of it until they reached the crook, "If you're wondering, my eyes were green when I was human. Though nothing as bright as Edward's were."

"Edward had green eyes too?" I was surprised.

"Yes, he did. Very bright, to the point where you'd think they'd glow," Jasper chuckled against my neck. "Mine were more subdued... deeper, more sea-green then anything else."

I could picture that. The image was one that I liked very much, I could feel and hear my heart thundering in my chest; speeding up with that picture of what Jasper looked like as a human. It was difficult to picture someone as unbelievably beautiful as Jasper as a simple human, but I could picture it.

Jasper's mouth covered over the crook of my neck, the mark he'd left there before he'd left had faded the day before. It was a disadvantage to the fast regeneration all of us had; any marks which he made on me would fade within days, sometimes hours. Somehow, though, I think he liked that because it meant he could leave new ones whenever he felt the whim to do so.

He bit down on the skin, leaving his mark, smirking against my skin when I gasped. I'm pretty sure that he liked being able to elicit all of those noises from me, it gave him some sort of thrill, which I could feel through that gift of his.

One of his hands slipped lower, ghosting over the drawstring of my sweats, untying them with one short tug of his hand, while the other slipped up under the hem of my shirt.

Somehow, I was still coherent enough to talk, "Finishing what you started?"

I felt him smile against my shoulder, "I don't think I'll have enough time... Edward will probably call any moment now for you to pick up Bella."

His fingers trailed temptingly over my hips, and I knew that if I didn't stop him now then I wasn't going to be able to stop myself from just tackling him right there. That wasn't smart for a number of reasons; for one, Billy could return at any moment, and having him catching us going at it wasn't what I wanted. Secondly, what he'd said was true; Edward would be calling at any moment to tell me to meet him and Bella in the clearing so that I could carry her to a secluded location in the mountains where she'd be safe.

I'd spend the night with them, acting as 'cell phone', and then Seth would take my place the next day so that I could rejoin the others for the fight. Sam and the others had already steeled themselves for whatever was in my mind, but as long as I didn't think about it, then they'd be able to ignore it.

I was starting to regret not wearing any underwear at that moment.

The phone saved me right on time. I lunged across the couch, making a grab for it, hand closing over the receiver. I pulled it out of its cradle and to my ear.

Jasper's hands went back around my hips, his chin resting on my shoulder.

"Hello?"

"_Jacob?"_

"No, you got the tooth fairy," I replied sarcastically. "Of course it's me, who else is it going to be?"

"_Sorry, I thought Billy might be home... or it could have been Jasper."_

"Eh, he wouldn't answer the phone."

"_Please tell me you two aren't doing anything... inappropriate."_

"It's all completely innocent." A lie, but he couldn't tell.

"_Good, because I really don't need that imagery. Anyway, could you meet Bella and I in the clearing in an hour? You don't need to bring anything, I have everything necessary for her camping trip."_

"Yeah, that's fine."

"_Thank you so much. I owe you for this."_ The line clicked, signalling that he'd hung up. I leaned back over to set the phone back in its cradle. It was sort of awkward, given how I had to stretch and wiggle around awkwardly in Jasper's arms in order to reach it.

I could feel his dick digging happily into my ass. Jasper, though, didn't seem too affected by it; stupid vampire, nothing could rattle him. It wasn't fair that he had near perfect control over himself at the times when I most wanted to just jump him right there.

He smiled at my irritation, "Don't be angry, I've spent much more time alone then you have, all waiting and preparing myself for you." His nose brushed along the back of my neck, causing the hair there to stand on end, drinking in my scent which so much more appealing to him then anyone else's. "Ah, but the wait was worth it. You're all I'll ever need."

That little declaration was finished with a kiss to the base of my neck, it proved just how much control he had over himself. I shivered in response. Jasper pulled away, flipping me around and then lying us both down on the couch, facing each other.

"Well, Jacob, what did I miss while I was hunting?"

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

I felt like someone had tied a lead weight to the pit of my stomach when I made my way to the clearing where all of our meetings and training sessions with the Cullens had taken place. Mostly I was nervous because I knew that I'd have to come clean soon to Bella about the fact that I'd imprinted, and I wasn't too sure how she'd take it. I was hoping that she wouldn't take it too badly, but that was probably hoping for too much; knowing her, she'd probably throw a fit over it.

Hell, I'd had enough problems dealing with it.

The run to the clearing was too short for me to get my thoughts into proper order, and I was still confused and unsure of myself when I arrived. Edward was on the other side of the clearing, his hand and Bella's entwined, I felt just a little jealous of them. Not because he was with her or that she was with him, but because they actually got to spend time together right then. I was just a little bit irritated that all of this had to happen _**now**_.

"Could you please try and keep your thoughts a little less... loud?" Edward asked.

"Huh? Oh sorry." I'd forgotten about that; Edward complained often, mostly when I'd been formerly introduced to the Cullen family, that my thoughts were too loud at times. I was trying to quieten them down, just a little. But when I wasn't focusing, they tended to get out of hand.

Bella looked between the two of us, and I guessed that she thought I was having some fantasy about her or something, which totally wasn't the case. I sighed, warily approaching them.

"So where exactly am I taking her?"

Edward removed a map from one of the many pockets of the huge camping backpack he had sling over his shoulder. He unfolded it, and I stepped closer to get a better look at just where exactly the overnight camping trip was going to take place. I knew the area pretty well, so I'd just need a rough route of where to go and where the place was, and I'd easily be able to find it.

Tracing a serpentine route along the map, Edward pointed to a secluded ridge-area that was about a hundred miles or so from where we were, "You'll be taking her there. I'll take a longer route, of course, to make sure that none of the newborns will follow yours. I'll double back and then take a detour to get there; but I should arrive before you, so I'll set up camp."

I nodded, stepping back again as he refolded the map and tucked it away. "I know the area, I'll be able to get her there in about an hour."

"Thank you, I owe you for this."

Waving my hand in dismissal, I recrossed my arms, "It's not a problem. Bella's important to me too." Just in a different way.

Edward gave the smallest hint of a smile before turning to Bella. He swept her into his arms and placed a chaste kiss against her lips, "I'll see you in an hour or two."

Bella's eyes flickered to me, and she pouted.

"This is how it has to be, I want you to be safe," Edward told her. "No newborn or vampire would want to stick their nose too close to Jacob's scent; it'll cover yours completely, Alice even said so."

"I still don't like this."

"You'll be fine." He smiled at her, more genuine but a little sad, then added, "I love you."

"I love you too," she replied, standing on her tip toes to press another chaste kiss to his lips.

I cleared my throat, reminding both of them that I was still there and waiting, "Not that I don't mind the little romantic displays, but you'll want to get camp set up before the storm hits, and I doubt that you want to run through that, Bella."

Edward's eyes flickered towards the sky, which was covered with dark grey, almost black, clouds in the distance; the storm wasn't too far off. It would probably hit tonight. I sincerely hoped that he'd packed Bella a lot of layers, otherwise she'd probably turn into an ice cube. Even though I didn't love her as deeply as before, she was still important (more like a sister now, though) and that meant that I wanted to see her safe.

"Go with Jacob, Bella, I'll see you both in an hour or two." Edward gave her a one-armed hug, then gently pushed her towards me.

Bella's pout turned into a frown as she slowly approached me. Once she was close enough, I easily looped one arm under her knees, knocking her legs out from under her. Before she could hit the ground, my other arm caught her around the shoulders. I picked her up easily; she wasn't heavy at all. She, though, didn't seem too happy about this.

"I'll see you." That was the last thing Edward said before he disappeared back the way the two of them had come. I rolled my eyes and turned back towards the trees.

"Can't you carry me on your back? This is... just too intimate," Bella complained.

Silently, I agreed with her, "This is easier, and the temperature will drop when we get further into the mountains. You'll stay warmer if I carry you like this."

She frowned again, but then it fell away, revealing a look of distress and guilt. She was probably suffering from some form of internal conflict other something that she perceived was her fault. I could still easily read her, even after all this time, and knew that it would be better for her to get it off her chest instead of keeping it bottled up inside.

"What's eating you?"

Bella seemed surprised at that, but then her face fell back into that guilty look, "Am I still that transparent?"

"It's kind of obvious when you look like the world's about to end and it's all your fault," I replied. "Wanna talk about it?"

There was silence for several long minutes as I jogged through the woods, winding through the trees, occasionally jumping over a stump, clump of shrugs, or other forest debris. I wasn't too worried about the silence, if Bella wanted to talk about it, then she would; it'd just take her a little while to gather her thoughts and voice whatever was eating her.

I didn't have to wait too long.

"I'm making Edward stay with me."

Jasper had already told me that, so I wasn't surprised, "Yeah, I heard about that."

However, Bella was completely caught off guard that I already knew and didn't really seem to care about that. "How...?"

"One of the Cullens mentioned it," I shrugged the question off, though I was pretty sure that she'd see through my evasion. "Doesn't really matter; just means more action for the rest of us."

"Don't say things like that! If anyone gets hurt or worse, killed..." It sounded like she was about to break down. "It's all my fault."

"But it's not," I replied. "And you're only gonna hurt Cullen more if you keep blaming yourself for things like this. It's not your fault, it's that damn bloodsucking leech's who thinks that avenging her mate is good enough reason to want you dead."

"Jake, she's killed dozens of people! Just to get to me! How is that not my fault?!"

"Simple, she made the choice, not you. Sure, you may be her goal, but it doesn't change the fact that she made the decision to kill those people so that she could create a distraction to get to you," I replied. "And don't blame yourself for the rest of us getting involved. This is our turf, and we're going to protect it. No leeches are gonna get past us."

I sounded confident, which was good, I needed to reassure her that all of this was going to be fine. She needed to believe it or else she'd do something really stupid; like try to make some sacrifice in order to help us win.

"You sound so confident."

"The pixie said there was only gonna be what? About twenty or so? We'll win, easily. We got skill on our side, Bella, and experience. There's no way that we're going to lose."

She smiled, "You sound confident... that's good. Edward's confident too."

"Then what do you have to be worried about? If there really was any significant danger to us, then Cullen wouldn't be hiding out with you in the mountains, he'd be there in the clearing, fighting. All of us are going to make it through this Bella, just you watch."

I hoped I'd done a good job, because having her worried or concerned would probably only make it harder for Edward to keep her safely tucked away in the mountains. If she did something stupid or reckless because she wanted to help, then she'd only be tossing away all of the precautions that had been taken for _**her**_ sake. Bella could sometimes be a real idiot.

"Aren't you getting tired?" She asked after a stretch of silence.

"Nope! This sort of thing doesn't tire me out," I replied easily.

She'd changed the subject, though I wasn't too sure why. I decided that I'd have tread carefully or else I'd probably let something slip that I shouldn't. My plan was to wait until after this newborn crisis was dealt with to tell her that I'd imprinted; it seemed a lot safer. Plus, it would give her more time to get used to it without having other things to worry about.

I had enough to think about now, and I didn't need anymore worries to be added to the mix. My life was complicated enough as it was.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

I made the chapter longer to make up for the lack of updates. Sorry about the long wait, school and writer's block stole my energy for this story. But it's coming along nicely, and I'm pretty sure that if I work at it hard enough, I'll be able to finish this fic before the end of the summer. I finished this the day of my math final, so be glad; I wasn't planning on working on it. I just wanted to crash, cramming makes me tired. Biology diploma is this Friday, then I'm done.

Anyway, I NEED YOUR GUYS' HELP. I'm trying to find someone (actor, musician, or model) who could play Marcus, of the Volturi, for another fic and mix project that I'm working on. The only problem is, I'm not good at this sort of thing (meaning, I don't know many celebrities or the like), so I'm asking for your help. The requirements are pretty lax: they have to have a dark allure to them, dark hair, and have something distant and sort of sad about them. The only two people I've found who could possibly be Marcus to me, are Uruha (guitarist of the GazettE), and Juka (former vocalist of Moi dix Mois).

Your help will be appreciated, and comments are welcome!

Twilight.

PS. First chapter of _Ghost Love Score_ will be posted once the second chapter is finished. Sorry for the wait!


	10. VII under the same pale moon

**Notes:** Oh god, I heard about Jasmine You (the bassist of Versailles) passing away this past Sunday, and I was shocked. I mean, the band had just gone major and were going to release a new album soon, and now... I'm just really depressed about this. Thus, this chapter gets a dedication.  
**Parts:** Part VII [ under the same pale moon ]  
**Rating:** pg13  
**Pairing:** Jasper/Jacob  
**Words:** 5518 words  
**Dedication:** This part is dedicated to the memory of Jasmine You, may he rest in peace.  
**Disclaimer:** The _Twilight_ series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own anything but the strange circumstances that I slap her characters into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise.

**. under the same pale moon .**

The weather sucked, plain and simple. I'd been given permission to phase, and I was currently sitting outside the tent which housed Bella and Edward, and I could hear her shivering inside of it. The others were dead silent in my head, which didn't surprise me too much. While it wasn't possible to block me entirely, if all of them focused on it enough, then my thoughts wouldn't come through unless I thought about something with a lot of force. It worked well for all of us.

I whined softly after Edward asked Bella if there was anything he could do. Both of us were at a loss as to what to do, because if we couldn't do anything, then she'd probably freeze to death soon.

"G-g-go home!" Bella tried to yell at me, but it came out as more of a strangled shrieky noise which hurt my ears, and I whined again.

'_Are her lips blue yet?_'

"Yes."

"A-a-are you-"

"Jacob can't communicate too efficiently in this form," Edward explained. "He was just asking about whether or not your lips were blue."

Another uncomfortable silence fell, there were a lot of those. Bella continued shivering, and I could hear her teeth chattering from where I was. If something wasn't done soon, then Bella was going to die from hypothermia which would basically mean that Victoria would have won.

Edward had caught onto my thoughts, because he snapped at me, "What do you want me to do?! Why don't you go do something useful like bring a space heater or something?!"

'_Oh yeah, I can totally go find a space heater at a time like this..._' I would've rolled my eyes, but resisted. And then I got an idea. I didn't like it too much, and I knew that Edward would hate it just on principal of what it would entail. He was possessive of Bella, just like how all vampires were of their 'mates', but if he wanted Bella to make it through this, then he'd have to do it.

"No."

'_Do I sound like I'm going to enjoy this? Come on, I'd rather be at home right now..._' I grumbled, giving him a few little images of what I'd much rather be doing at that moment, laughing when I heard him tense and mutter out a string of swears. Bella, though, was left in the dark as to what we were 'talking' about.

Finally, Edward let out a heavy sigh that sounded more like a hiss, and muttered, "... fine."

I had to wonder if this strong jealousy was inherent in all male vampires because I'd noticed a bit of a similar streak in Jasper, though he controlled it a lot better then Edward did. Though, I think that Jasper was a little more assured about his place in my life then Edward was of his place in Bella's. I think that might have had something to do with the fact that both of us knew that she was in love with me but not aware of it. Right then, though, I didn't care at all if she realized it or not. Maybe it would be easier to have a clean break if she never figured it out.

"W-w-w-w-w...?"

Phasing back from my wolf form, I quickly pulled on a pair of sweats that Edward had chucked out of the tent's door at me, then I slipped inside. Bella's eyes were on me, but her teeth were chattering together too severely for her to get anything out to demand an explanation. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, dislodging the snow and icy crystals which had formed there.

The inside of the tent wasn't that much warmer then outside, but just minus the wind. Edward was sitting as far from Bella as the confines of the canvas tent would allow, and Bella was curled up in something resembling the fetal position in her sleeping bag on the other side of the tent from Edward. From where her head was poking out of the opening, her face was white and her lips had turned a shade of blue that couldn't be healthy.

Well, I wanted to get this over with, because it was going to be awkward and uncomfortable, and I probably wouldn't be getting the greatest night of sleep. But then I thought about Bella, and how I'd feel if she were to die and it was in my power to save her, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I picked the alternative.

"Just get this over with," Edward hissed, his arms tightening around his knees. I sighed.

"Move over Bella." I reached for the zipper of the sleeping bag as she tried to protest, but since her voice had pretty much failed her at that point. With some difficulty I managed to stuff myself into the sleeping bag alongside her, and I became acutely aware of how close she was to being a human ice cube.

When her icy fingers pressed against my chest, I jumped, and that was followed quickly by her toes after she'd managed to toe off her boots. If it wasn't for how my body was naturally extremely hot, then I'd have probably been in the situation that she was, and we'd both have been screwed.

Luckily, though, we weren't, and it didn't take too long until Bella's skin was back to its warm temperature, but I still couldn't leave because that would wake her up, and it would also just mean that I'd have to come back and do it again later. In this weather, there was no way that Bella would ever be able to keep her body at the right temperature, and she'd just freeze back up again if I left. But I was tired, so I wasn't going to complain too much. A free night's sleep somewhere warm, but I missed Jasper's rock-hard body and the natural chill that came with it. I missed him greatly.

As I drifted closer to sleep, my thoughts started to wander too, and my concentration on what went through my mind through straight out the window. The only thing that I was really consciously aware of, was that I wanted Jasper there with me.

"If your thoughts are going to be that loud, Jacob, then I'll knock you out." Edward's harsh whisper broke me out of my state of half-consciousness. "And I'm quite sure that Jasper would appreciate it if I were to do so, so feel free to keep your mind occupied with those fantasies of yours."

That would be exactly what Jasper would want, just minus the injury that Edward would probably have to give me in order to carry out that threat.

"There are ways that I can knock you out without hurting you too badly," Edward replied. "Though, I would have to be careful since you're still rather fragile compared to us."

I growled at him, "You know that I'd fight back, I might not win, but I'd fight."

It was then heavily implied, by my using my thoughts, that then he'd _**have**_ to use more force then was necessary and I'd wind up getting hurt. There was no way that Edward would hurt me, because that would in turn hurt Jasper, and the last thing that he'd do was hurt any member of his family.

"Well, can you at least try to keep control of them? Because it's not too pleasant for me knowing those sorts of things about your relationship with him, and I'm very sure that some of those things are meant to just be between the two of you."

"Uh huh... but you can tune it out, for the most part."

"As long as you don't shout it out, it's a little hard to ignore then," Edward replied evenly.

"Hmph, I'll do my best then."

I'd been so tired after the long days and nights of staying up too late and trying to keep myself busy, not to mention the emotional roller coaster I'd been on since I'd imprinted took its toll and I finally accepted the black oblivion of unconscious. I was tired, and I wanted a few dreams that would help take my mind off of the horrible situation that I was in at that moment.

Sleep was a really good idea.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

I was woken up rather abruptly the next morning when Edward pulled open the sleeping bag and sent me tumbling to the freezing cold ground of the tent. Even for me, that was a shock, and I immediately was on my feet, nearly taking the tent down with me when I shot up. Unfortunately, I'd nearly thwacked Bella across the face, but she'd put that right in my way by trying to scramble to her feet at the same moment that I'd jumped up.

Sometimes it really seemed like she was an idiot.

Of course, nearly thwacking Bella across the face wasn't a good thing to do when her very protective vampire boyfriend was in the vicinity, so I wasn't too surprised when I was thrown across the remaining area of the tent and narrowly missed ripping a gaping hole through the canvas. Normally that would've been enough to send me over the edge, but I still wasn't really all that awake, so I settled for just giving Edward a really dark glare.

But apparently Bella thought that it would turn out worse then it probably would've, because she'd immediately tried to put herself between me and Edward like a human barrier. Which probably wouldn't have done much if we had decided to go at it, because either of us could've easily tucked her behind us before any violent action could occur. And I knew that I would make a lovely hole through the tent, possibly break a few bones, and start bleeding like mad if I did decide to attack him for accidentally hitting his girlfriend.

That wasn't a good idea, even if I wasn't involved with his adopted brother.

"Asshole," I muttered instead. I hadn't exactly had a great night's sleep the night before, because I'd been kept from getting any really restful sleep by this nagging feeling that kept telling me that something was going to go wrong. Really, really wrong.

"Very mature, Jacob," Edward replied evenly, gently pulling Bella out of her position of human shield as he did so. When she stubbornly refused to move, he went about reassuring her, "Nothing will happen Bella, I promise that I won't hurt Jacob."

"But I – you – huh?" Bella looked between the two of us, confused, and then crossed her arms and huffed out, "You two are acting weird, but if you're not going to fight, then I'll deal with it."

There was a small glint, and I realized with a bit of a jolt that there was a ring on the third finger of her left hand that had definitely not been there the last time I'd seen her. Edward seemed to have noticed where my eyes were directed, but before he could say anything, Bella demonstrated that she wasn't completely blind to what was going on.

Her eyes widened for a moment when she followed my gaze, and realized that I was staring at her engagement ring that she hadn't had before. Then she looked quickly at Edward and then at me with a really worried and panicky look on her face.

"Oh shit."

A dead, sort of awkward silence followed that.

Edward seemed to realize that this was something that had to be talked about between me and his new fiancée because he quickly excused himself from the tent.

"Bella, Seth's just arriving, I'll go out and talk to him. There are a few last minute preparations that I want to make before the fight. The two of you will be fine, I hope? I won't be too far." Then he disappeared out of the door of the tent after pressing a quick kiss to her cheek.

The silence returned with a vengeance.

"Um... well I..." Bella stuttered out. "... I'm sorry Jake."

I was really confused at that, "Why are you apologizing?"

The dam seemed to break when I asked that, because Bella was trying to hide her face behind her hands, and I was just completely lost. She wasn't making any sense, because she kept blubbering out words and phrases that made absolutely no sense to me **_at all_**. Then it sort of clicked.

Oh. Right. Supposed to be in love with Bella and fighting the leech for her. Oops. I hadn't really thought about that since Jasper had brought it up the day before. I wanted to slam my head into the ground repeatedly for not remembering that key little detail.

"I'm **_engaged_**, Jake," she snapped finally. She'd gotten back enough control of herself that she could make complete sentences now. "It's pretty much final, and I didn't give you much of a chance, did I? I'm sorry about that. I don't want to see you hurt because of something I've done."

_And I've done a lot that I know has hurt you_. The truth of that unspoken sentence lingered in the silence between us, and I had to figure out what to say to her that would get us out of this ugly situation.

"You love him, I know that," I started. "I'm not an idiot, Bells, I can see that you really love him; more then me. I can't deny that."

"Huh?" Brown eyes looked up at me in confusion.

"You're the idiot," I replied, a little harsher then I normally would have. "And besides, I'm not as angry about this as you think I'm gonna be. Isn't there that old saying? _Things change_. Well, things have changed, haven't they?"

This wasn't exactly how I'd planned to tell Bella that I'd imprinted, but it was an explanation and it would let her off the hook of being confused and worried about me. I wasn't going to tell her everything, though, but I knew that if she pressed me I'd probably just tell her anyway since she'd know that I was lying. Didn't help that I was shitty at avoiding answering questions if I didn't want too either.

"What...?"

"I've already told you about some of the wolf shit, remember? Like with what happened with Sam, things have changed for me. I guess you could say that the world's changed were it's rotating for me."

A spark of recollection was in her eyes, and I knew that she'd figured it out. Bella's voice was still a little shaky when she spoke next, "You... imprinted?"

"Yeah."

"When?"

"Around when we had that first meeting with the Cullens," I replied a little evasively.

She nodded her head again in thought, "Is that why you ran off? Because you didn't want to face me about this? You know that I'd have been happy for you, Jake. I really do want you to be happy."

"It's not that _**exactly,**_" I replied. "But that's part of it. I was sorta worried about how you'd take it."

"Why? Is it someone that I wouldn't approve of?" she asked.

"I don't know if you'd approve of this or not. It was really unexpected."

This made her smile, and she nodded, "Don't tell me unless I guess right, okay?"

"Uh, okay." She wanted to guess who I'd imprinted on? I hadn't expected this, but then again, Bella was just plain strange; I never had any idea of what she'd say or do next. But the good news for me was that she was taking the news of my imprinting a lot better then I'd thought she would. Whether or not my luck on that would hold was another matter completely.

"Well, you were at my school before the meeting, was it someone there?" she frowned. "Please tell me you didn't imprint on Jessica, or Lauren. Angela... well I guess that's okay. Am I close?"

I shook my head, "Nope, not even close."

Her brow burrowed, and then there seemed to be another click in her brain, and she said, "You didn't phase with the rest of them... was that because of your imprinting?"

"Uh, yeah it's got to do with that."

"So is it someone that they don't approve of?"

"Well... more like they weren't expecting it is more like it."

"Huh?"

Great, now I had to explain this as best I could without letting her know too much, "We didn't think it was possible for, you know, us to imprint on anyone who wasn't, well, the opposite gender."

"You mean... you imprinted on a guy?!" Bella nearly shrieked. I very nearly rolled my eyes at that, but I resisted and instead threw my hands up in a placating gesture. She was staring at me with her eyes nearly bugging out of their sockets, and her mouth open in a large 'o'.

"... yeah." My cheeks felt like they were on fire, and I was refusing to meet Bella's eyes because of how embarrassed I was. This wasn't a situation that we'd ever touched on, mostly because I hadn't had any idea of who'd I'd imprint on, and my sexuality wasn't exactly set because of it. But I'd been sure that I was straight before this whole imprinting debacle, so having my sexuality set now was sort of... weird. Then again, since I wouldn't ever consider anyone besides Jasper, that didn't make me 'homosexual', it was _**just Jasper**_.

"Oh my." Bella clapped a hand over her mouth, her cheeks turning pink as she continued to stare at me in total shock.

It took a few moments for Bella to recover enough to put her thoughts into words, "I can see... I mean, I guess that's really unexpected... you haven't, you know..." Her cheeks turned an even brighter pink then before.

"That's personal." I'd taken enough shit over having had sex with Jasper, and I didn't want to have to tell my best friend that I'd beaten her to the punch in getting a vampire into bed with me. And she wasn't very comfortable with the notion of me being with another guy, but that sort of thing takes time to get used too.

"Oh, oh right. Of course." She looked down at her hands, which she was nervously clasping and unclasping in her lap. "Well um... do I know this person?"

That question had an obvious answer, one that Bella probably already knew, but I answered it anyway, "Yeah, you do. But that's not gonna get you far cause in a town this small, you pretty much know everyone."

She nodded, "Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm just... this is just isn't something that I wouldn't have expected. I never thought that you were, _**you know**_..."

I shrugged that off, "Imprinting is sort of... weird that way. You can't actually know what your sexuality is until you imprint, and then, it's just like... they're it, and you'll never consider anyone else. It's not like your straight or gay, it's like... your sexuality is them."

"Oh, okay. That's a... little easier to swallow."

"You get used to it after a while. For me, it was really difficult to come to terms too, cause I didn't know whether or not they'd return my feelings in anyway, or if they'd just be disgusted with me. There was some other shit involved too, cause I was sort of... coming between him and someone else."

"He was... with someone else when you imprinted on him?" Again with the shocked look, except this time it was disapproving and looking to be a little more then irritated. She wasn't too pleased with this development. "That's really wrong you know! It doesn't matter if imprinting means that the two of you are meant to be, he still had someone else!"

"Yeah, uh, I was really worried about that," I rubbed the back of my head a little sheepishly and refused to meet her eyes. "But they'd, um, been together for a while and they both recognized that their relationship wasn't going anywhere... she did basically give us her blessing."

After several long moments of silence, Bella nodded her head a little, "Okay. I can live with that, I guess. But you said that I know this person, and I really am curious to know who it is. Will you tell me? Please Jake?"

When I didn't answer, she ploughed on with reassurances, "I promise I won't be mad or anything, in fact, I'm really very happy for you. It all worked out in the end, didn't it? I get my own happy ending, and you get yours too. So who is it? If you won't tell me, then I'll go ask Edward."

Great, now she'd backed me into a corner because I knew that Edward would avoid lying to Bella as much as he was able. Somehow, she just knew when he was lying (the guy's bullshitting skills suck most of the time) and would call him out on it, which would just make her angry and also make her probably suspect the worst. Of course, in this case, she'd probably start believing that I'd imprinted on someone in town who she wouldn't _**approve**_ of; not like that mattered very much.

"If you promise me that you won't be mad at me," I looked pointedly at her hand, "Just keep in mind the last time that you got mad enough at me to try and punch me."

Bella nodded, with a resigned almost petrified look on her face that told me she was expecting the worst if I was asking her not to try and beat me up again. But last time I'd kind of deserved it for being very vocal about my bad-mouthing of her precious Edward; it was a lesson that I'd learned the hard way, especially when I'd told her that I knew that she'd be much healthier if she chose me instead.

Those thoughts brought back bittersweet feelings, and made me think of a future that could have been. In any sane universe, Bella and I would have been perfect for each other. We'd have settled down eventually and had a family, grow old, and die happy. That, though, wasn't going to happen, because the reality was that our day-to-day survival was in question.

"Alright, well, I imprinted on someone who I'm pretty sure that you know really well. I mean, you pretty much spend all your time with his family."

I could practically see the light bulb go off in her head, "You... you imprinted on one of the Cullens?!" At the end, her voice went up into a near shriek that would've killed my ears in wolf form. In human form, it just made me wince a little.

"Can you not make those noises please? And yeah, I did. No one really expected it, which is why they wouldn't let me phase." At least I had better bullshitting skills then Edward did. "I think the others were worried that this was contagious or something, but it was more like they just didn't want to know anything more about the subject other then I'd imprinted on one of the Cullens."

With a deep frown, Bella mulled over this new information, "Rosalie would never give her 'blessing'; I know that she's deeply in love with Emmett and they're very showy with their love, so I know it wasn't him. And it's not Edward either. So who was it? Carlisle or Jasper?" She looked up at me when she finished with her question.

Moment of truth, I guessed. I let out a sigh, and muttered, "Jasper."

The silence hung for a long time. But then Bella let out this weird little noise that was almost like a muffled scream, and I was wondering if I should have been glad that there were no objects within reach that could've caused me any lasting damage. Seriously, Bella looked like she might resort to killing me at that moment.

"But Alice and Jasper... they're...! How could they...?!" Apparently, she was lost for words.

"When I asked about it," I began, "All Alice would tell me was that she was happy if Jasper was happy, and since I made him happy, then that was good enough reason for her to let him go."

There was more awkward silence then, and I could feel that the time was ticking away, and if I didn't leave soon, I'd probably miss out on all the action that was going to go down in the clearing with the newborns. My stomach clenched at that, at thinking about Jasper facing them down without me there. But Bella wasn't quite through with me yet.

Once she'd recovered herself enough, Bella moved on a bit to a different topic, "Is that why you're here with us? Because Jasper didn't want you in the clearing?" She quickly clarified, "I've been around vampires a lot, Jake, I know how they think just a little. The last thing that Edward would want, is for me to be in danger, that's why we're up here. It's a bit of a stretch, but I'm pretty sure that Jasper would think along those same lines when it comes to you."

"That's what he wanted," I replied, drawing my knees a little closer to my chest. "He wanted me to stay here with the two of you to act as 'cell phone', but I talked him into letting me be there."

She nodded her head, looking a little bit distracted. I continued, glad to finally have someone to talk to about this who wasn't being too harsh or critical of me because of it.

"It's like how you don't want to be separated from Edward; I felt horrible knowing that he'd be out there fighting and risking his life, while I sat around somewhere safe like a little kid. I'm not a kid anymore, and I'm not as helpless as you are, Bella. I can fight."

"Was he hoping that I'd convince you otherwise?" she asked, not meeting my eyes. Trust Bella to be rather perceptive at times. She wasn't as unintelligent as looked.

"Yeah, he was."

She gave a tiny, wistful smile, "Even I could've told him that wouldn't have worked; your more stubborn then a mule when you want to be."

"I know."

"Even though it's not the greatest resolution, and I'm going to find out more about this situation, I think that in the end we'll all be happy. Things have to have worked out this way for a reason, right?"

"Yeah." I smiled at her, and stood up. "Anyway, I have to go now or else I'll miss all the action."

Bella pulled her knees to her chest, looking a little pitiful, "Well... good luck, then. And please be careful, for Jasper's sake... and mine."

"I'm always careful," I replied with a little smirk. Bella snorted at that and I left her with a little mock salute before I disappeared into the forest, racing in the direction of the clearing.

It would've been easier to simply phase and run, I'd have gotten there a lot faster, but there was a lot that I had on my mind, and the last thing that I wanted was a bunch of nosy asses in my head. The running would clear my head, better my focus. I could easily follow the trail that I'd laid to get to the cliffs and it was like second-nature to me, allowing me to get more lost in my own thoughts.

My lack of attention to my surroundings is what caused the following catastrophe to happen, and I completely blame myself for it. It could've been very easily avoided.

I had just jumped over a fallen tree when something rock-hard practically clothes-lined me. The breath was completely knocked out of me, and I fell back onto the rough forest ground hard, which didn't help at all. I was lying there, gasping for breath, when I heard the most chilling sound that I'd probably ever hear.

"Victoria, why did I stop this pathetic human?" That voice was decidedly male, and very young too. I couldn't see whoever it was who was speaking, but I'd guess that whoever it was was probably around college-age. Then my oxygen deprived brain started putting pieces together about why my heart had suddenly started pounding wildly at the name he'd said.

Victoria.

That was the vampire who was after Bella! The one that the Cullens suspected might have started this entire newborn mess all as a decoy to get to her and destroy her once and for all. All for her mate who'd been killed over a year earlier.

What could she possibly have wanted with me?

"Oh Riley, my love, because this pathetic human is very important to that bitch who we came here to kill." Victoria's voice wasn't like what I'd thought a vampiress' voice would be. It was light, breathy, and very girly with no traces of seduction or sex in it, like I'd expected. But her voice was enough to send chills through my spine, and make me try to roll over so that I'd be in a better position to phase.

She was having none of that. A vicious kick firmly slammed me back into the ground, winding me again right when I was just starting to be able to breathe properly again. I lay there, gasping for breath, as she came up with the cruel manner for me to die.

"Bite him."

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

I'm sorry if this seems a little rushed, but I was kind of anxious to get it out because of how long you've all gone without an update. You should expect to see another part, this time an interlude, very soon seeing as how I already have it started and waiting for completion. Plus, I can't leave you with a cliff-hanger this bad for too long or I'd feel horrible about it!

Also, IF YOU FAVOURITE OR ALERT THIS STORY, THEN DAMMIT, LEAVE ME A REVIEW AS A COURTESY.

Twilight.

PS. Here is a sneak preview of my fic, _Complexity_, which will be debuting sometime this November:

Aro was someone who was always looking for something new and **_fascinating_** to add to his collection. And once again, Carlisle had proved that his... alternate lifestyle could be very useful to aiding that goal of his. What he'd discovered was a clan of humans who could change their shape into that of wolves at will, and this had Aro's curiosity roused.

He wanted one of those wolves, desperately.

It would take just a little bit of manipulating, but they had the laws on their side, along with the advantage of numbers. A few little falsehoods, since really they weren't lies, would secure the co-operation of the wolves. He didn't actually truly fancy the idea of attacking them to get what he wanted. If he could secure one of them in a more or less willing way, it eliminated a lot of the nastier bits of kidnap and having other vampire turn on them for perhaps even violating their own laws.

"It seems you have amassed... quite a flock of allies Carlisle." Aro kept his voice light and even; Edward wasn't there yet, and Aro needed to smooth out the details of his plan before he did. "But the question is, have you held up your end of our little deal?"

A little coercion would go a long way.


	11. Interlude IV:: you're always in my heart

**Notes****: **I am so sorry about how long it took me to finishing this and posting it! Really I had planned to get it out so much sooner, but life got in the way, and I caught the flu... the flu was bad, okay? But I'm better now and I'm on a bit of a writing spree since - well nevermind why, I just am and that's all you guys care about, right? Oh, and there is one more thing... PLOT TWIST AHEAD.  
**Part Title:** Interlude IV [ you're always in my heart ]  
**Pairing:** Jasper/Jacob  
**Words:** 3320 words  
**Disclaimer:** The _Twilight_ series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own the characters or anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise.

**Interlude IV  
. you're always in my heart .**

A sense of general unease had settled into the pit of my stomach, and it made all of my senses that much more sharper while I tried to figure out what was causing it. I didn't have much to go on, because what my sixth sense was giving me from the battlefield and forest around me did not match up with that feeling, which told me that it was my own intuition. But then I gave it a little more thought as Emmett easily dealt with the last newborn.

Ever sense Jacob had imprinted on me, and we'd been spending more time together, I was getting much more input from him then anyone else. My ability had always been affected by distance, I needed to be in the same room, or just very close by, in order to feel whatever it was that they were feeling. When it came down to affecting others, I needed very close contact, physical contact made it strongest, to work that part of my ability. But with Jacob, it was... different.

If I wasn't too careful, then I'd often get 'glimpses' of whatever it was that he was feeling at that point in time. It was never anything very concrete, and never lasted very long, but it was enough to give me an impression as to his well-being.

When I suddenly fell to my knees, feeling an excruciating pain that I didn't know, wasn't familiar with, I just knew that something was wrong. Horribly wrong. But what? The newborns had all been dealt with, there shouldn't have been any threat here, it had been dealt with and no one was hurt. Already I could hear the wolves shuffling about in the forest, bringing parts of the decimated newborns to add to the growing heap.

Then something else flashed through my mind, something that I'd never seen before. It felt as though someone was reaching out for me, desperately, and immediately everything clicked into place and I knew with startlingly cold clarity what was wrong.

Jacob was in pain, something had attacked him.

Then another thing clicked.

_**He was dying.**_

Before any of the others could stop me, or even ask questions, my legs were already carrying me at blindingly fast speeds towards an area that I had a very faint impression of. I didn't care if I was breaking with the plan, the plan didn't matter right then, because it wasn't important anymore; I had to get to Jacob, I needed to make sure that _**he was alive**_. I couldn't lose him.

Scents bombarded me as I ran, and I was horrified to realize that I recognized one of them. Victoria.

Something cold and sharp lodged itself in my heart, and I knew that we had somehow miscalculated. Victoria would have known that Jacob was somehow important to Bella, and that would have been enough incentive for her to target him.

I wasn't ignorant or naive, I knew from what little Edward had given us about Victoria was that she and James were mates. Having killed James, Victoria would have been willing to go to any lengths to make sure that Edward knew her pain before she destroyed him completely. That was why Bella was the target; Victoria's plan all along had been to hurt Edward through her, the final blow being her death.

That was something that I'd known, something that I'd taken into consideration along with everything else that I knew of Victoria.

I hadn't thought of the target that would have been cast over anyone and everyone who was close to Bella. I hadn't thought that she might, slim as the chance was, that she'd go after Jacob. That she had gone after the one person who made my world, who was my world, brighter, a better place to be... it left a strange mix of feelings in me. Anger and desolation, and a desperate hope to make it to him in time; there had to be something that I could do for him!

The scents were getting stronger, more concentrated. I was getting closer, but the scents weren't fresh, I could tell that much; they were a little stale. Victoria and one another had been there, but they'd long since moved on; probably to go and find Edward and Bella, the real targets. A surge of vengeance welled up inside me, but the worry that was still coursing through me was pushing it aside; my revenge could wait, Jacob needed me at that moment more.

If I could save him, if I could do anything for him, then I wouldn't delay. I wouldn't lose him, I just couldn't.

A smell greeted me, one among the other stale scents that dominated the wind which was blowing towards me. It was one I recognized, I knew it so well, only it was so much more potent then how I usually smelled it. That only made me push myself to go faster.

I could smell, I could _**taste**_, Jacob's blood.

That only infuriated me more. I was nearly overcome at that moment with bloodlust; I hadn't ever had the chance to taste his blood, no one was supposed to have that honour but me. I'd held myself back for a number of reasons, the largest one being that I had no idea of what my venom could do if I introduced it to his system. Of course, there were theories (of which Carlisle had plenty), and he strongly believed that our venom would either prove fatal, or it would mess with their bodies in such a way as we hadn't seen before.

Would Jacob be dead when I found him? Or would he be too far beyond my reach to save? Or... would he become some other creature? The possibilities were only making my worry, my concern, that much worse.

As I drew closer, I could make out the faint sound of a heartbeat, along with the scent of blood. I skidded to a stop at Jacob's side, falling to my knees at his side.

His body was crumpled on the forest floor and he was as white as a sheet as he gasped for breath and weakly thrashed around. There were gashes in the ground from where he'd clawed at it in his spasms, and his eyes were squeezed shut as he arched off the ground again, letting out silent screams of pain. At that moment, he seemed weak and small; so tiny and fragile.

A small trickle of blood was escaping from his neck, in the perfect shape of a bite mark. Victoria's scent hung over the clearing, along with the scent of that unfamiliar vampire which I'd scented alongside it. The venom which remained on Jacob's neck glistened in the waning sunlight.

Slowly, I gathered him up into my arms, cradling him to me as I desperately tried to think of something, anything, that could save him. He thrashed about in my arms, blind to everything but the pain, and it was close to overwhelming me, making it difficult to think, to concentrate.

"Jake..." I murmured, pressing my lips to his in a vain effort to calm him. I pulled up every defence that I could think of to block out his pain, but it wasn't completely successful. It kept seeping through my barriers, no matter how strong they were, no matter how much of my mental energy I threw into them. "I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry."

Suddenly, a memory popped into my mind. Of a similar situation that had occurred over a year earlier. A clean bite, the venom hadn't spread too much if he was still screaming, if he was still thrashing about, then there was still time. I could still save him.

The bite was clean, it would be possible for me to suck the venom back out. But there would be no way to repair or undo the changes that could have possibly been done already. If he was different... would that change anything?

I desperately hoped not.

"I'm sorry... I don't want to hurt you anymore... but I have to do this." I leaned down, brushing my lips quickly over his before tracing them down the side of his neck until they hovered over the bite which marred his neck. Taking a deep breath to steady my frayed nerves, made only worse by the constant stream of pain which was being fed to me from him.

With painstaking care, I bit down, and quickly began to suck. I could taste the bitter tang of the venom (there wasn't as much as I'd feared), as well as the sweet taste of his blood. That alone was nearly enough to undo me, but I resisted. I couldn't kill him now. I could never kill him; it would be the same as if I'd killed myself.

Slowly, the taste of the venom began to fade, until the only taste which remained was that of his blood. I forced myself back, to stop, and with a strength of will that I didn't know I had, I managed it. The wound was still oozing blood, and I knew that he was already running dangerously low. He'd lost quite a lot of blood before I'd arrived there, and I had taken quite an amount as well in my effort to save him.

Ripping at my sweater, I tore it off, ripping it into strips which I lashed about his neck tightly, but not too tightly as to strangle him. The blood flow needed to be stopped, and Jacob was in desperate need of medical attention; I had to get to Carlisle as fast as I possibly could.

He was floating somewhere between conscious and unconscious as I swept him easily into my arms, cradling him against my chest gently. His forehead came to rest against the side of my neck, his breath cool and sticky against the hard skin there. But he was alive, and that was what was most important to me.

I could still feel the faint beating of his heart in his chest, the sound of his breathing rushing in and out of his lungs. He was alive. He was alive and I could still hold him in my arms.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

Everyone was at home when I arrived, minus Edward and Bella, and for that I was grateful. The last thing that I needed right then was her hovering over my shoulder with all of her worry and her concern about her best friend. My own emotions were running haywire with me, and for the first time in a very long time, I actually felt exhausted from the emotional turmoil that I was feeling.

Carlisle and Alice shot up from the couch and were on either side of me in moments. I was so lost to my instincts to protect Jacob, that I growled at Carlisle when he attempted to take Jacob from my arms. There was no way that I was letting him out of my sight, not now, not when he needed me the most.

He gave a short nod, racing into the small clinic that he kept in the house for such emergencies (that were usually all related to Bella). I followed him, Alice at my side, her hand resting comfortingly against my arm. I was glad for her presence, her strength gave me strength. She calmed me down from the frantic urges that I had been subjected to since Jacob had been attacked.

I laid Jacob gently on the examining table, brushing aside his hair from his too pale face as I slid onto the table beside his head. Carlisle began checking all of his vitals, ordering Alice to help prepare a blood transfusion for the young wolf after checking his medical files. His hands were moving quickly from Jacob to his instruments and back to Jacob again. A frown creased his mouth, and suddenly I was overcome by another wave of panic as Carlisle ordered Alice to bring him a syringe for a blood sample.

_Oh god, what have I done?_

What if in my efforts to keep the venom from hurting Jacob, I'd only pumped my own further into him? His blood had tasted clean, clean and _**so sweet**_, when I'd pulled away but what... what if there'd already been damage done before I'd gotten there? I had no idea if the venom could have worked whatever fatal consequences it could have on him before I'd gotten there.

Carlisle worked furiously while I became a statue at the head of the examining table, Jacob's head resting in my lap as I wordlessly stroked his hair.

There was an unfamiliar pressure behind my eyes, which had started to sting, and I found myself praying to any and every god that might exist in the hope that they'd be able to bring Jacob back to me just as he'd been. He was everything to me, and losing him would destroy me. If he came out of this and hated me, hated my kind, for what had happened, then I could survive. As long as he was alive, then nothing else mattered.

If he pushed me away, if he never wanted to see me again, then I would be fine with that too. It would hurt me more then anything else, short of him dying, but I'd leave him if that was what he wanted. I couldn't bear knowing that I'd put him in danger, that this was my fault; I should have thought about Victoria's need for revenge, that she would do anything for vengeance.

I hoped Edward had killed her, because if he hadn't, then I would do it myself.

The minutes slowly ticked by, turning into hours, and the frantic pace which Carlisle and Alice had been working over Jacob with calmed, until it was only Carlisle in the room with us. He was monitoring Jacob's heart rate, his breathing, but was also frowning over the blood tests that he'd been running for the past, I glanced at the clock, hour.

My fear was still clawing at my insides. Had something happened? I needed desperately to know.

"Carlisle..." My voice sounded pitiful, broken. "Is he...?"

"He's lucky that you got there as quickly as you did; you managed to suck all of the venom back out," Carlisle explained. "He'll live, Jasper."

A huge sigh of relief slipped past my lips, and I let myself smile just a little. I was just so happy to hear, to know, that he wasn't dead. Jacob was alive, I hadn't gotten there too late. But the greatest relief was that I'd been able to control myself when faced with his blood. I had been worried greatly about that; I was under no allusions that I was the weakest member of our family, the one who was most likely to slip up. In saving Jacob, I'd proven that I could control myself, even when presented with such temptation.

"Will he wake up soon?"

"He's lost a lot of blood Jasper," Carlisle replied, still frowning over his test results. "But his kind recover quickly, I would give him a few more hours before he wakes up on his own. They're a remarkable species, truly they are."

I looked away from Carlisle, turning my attention back to my mate who was now, apparently, sleeping peacefully on the uncomfortable examining table. He would be sore when he woke up, I mused, and he'd demand an explanation for what had happened. Idly, I wondered if he would be mad at what I had done to him, or if he'd be proud of me for demonstrating that I really could control that darker part of me. Or would he ask a stupid question to lighten up the mood?

Really, I had no idea of what to expect.

I wasn't given much more time to think, because the unmistakable noise of Bella's truck could be heard pulling up outside of the house. Even from where I was in the house, I could still make out her shrill demands to be told what was going on, what was wrong with Jacob. I wished that she could have come later, when Jacob was awake, because I wasn't too sure how to handle her.

The front door opened with a loud crash, which was quickly followed by Bella stomping her way angrily into the house, demanding that Edward take her to Jacob. I could hear Edward softly ask that she calm down. I could feel the fury, the pain, the worry, all of it rolling off of her even though I wasn't even in the same room as she. That was how strong her emotions were at that moment.

She didn't take long to figure out where we were, and she threw open the door with another resounding crash, making me growl at her and the noise. Unfortunately, she didn't take the warning to stay away.

"Jake!" she shrieked, and made as if she was going to throw herself at him.

I was already hunched over him, ready to pounce if she were to make a wrong move. It didn't matter to me if she was his best friend, she was still the reason for why he was here, like this. As irrational as it was, I blamed her for what happened to him, even though she couldn't have done anything to have kept this from happening. I blamed her, I blamed myself, I blamed Victoria. But I would stay at Jacob's side until I was sent away.

Edward stopped her before she got too close, his arms firm around her waist as she tried vainly to pull away to get to my mate. A threatening growl slipped from my throat; a warning to stay back if she valued her life.

"What's going on?!" she snapped. "Tell me what's going on!"

Carlisle stepped between us, "Bella please calm down; now isn't the time for you to be overly emotional."

"But Jake –" She was interrupted.

I growled again.

"Bella." This time it was Edward who was trying to talk some sense into the angry and irrational human girl who had no idea of what the consequences of letting her near me and Jacob would be. "Listen to Carlisle. Going near Jacob right now isn't a good idea; Jasper's instincts are going haywire right now, if you do anything that he thinks might be a threat, he'll kill you."

"I'm not a threat! Damn it! Let me go Edward!"

"Jacob will be fine, Bella," Carlisle assured her, giving me a warning glance. "Jasper managed to get to him in time, he'll survive. But right now he needs rest and you need to calm yourself down before you can see him. Wait until he wakes up."

Slowly, Edward and Carlisle were able to herd Bella from the room, something that I was grateful for. As Carlisle had said, my instincts were going crazy at that moment to keep Jacob safe and close to me. I had only let him treat Jacob because of Alice's calming influence, along with his own. There were things that Carlisle could do for Jacob that I couldn't, and I trusted him to be able to help him.

Before Carlisle was out of the door, he turned back to me. There was something lurking under the calm veneer that he was wearing, something that I recognized as wary fear but it wasn't of me. His eyes flickered from Jacob to me and then back again.

"When he wakes up, there's something that I have to tell both of you."

Then the door clicked shut, and Jacob and I were left to ourselves.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

*GASP* What is it that Carlisle needs to tell them?! Okay, so staying up till six in the morning reading a fic is a bad idea, because it does nothing but feed my own muses, but at least the good news is that some of them aren't dead yet. Apparently some of them have been sobering up lately and are recovering from being passed out in the back room.

I'm not going to make any promises this time, but I'm really hoping that I'll be able to get the next chapter out ASAP. Because I'm on a bit of a roll with ideas for this fic, and I really want to finish it so that I can focus on something else. I do have that fic, _Complexity_, that I want to work some more on since it's my NaNo project for this year and I am determined to complete it!

YEP. PLOT TWIST IS AHEAD. And it's one that I hadn't originally planned for this fic. My muses are evil.

Twilight.


	12. VIII Beneath the Blue

**Notes:** I'd like to pimp Shey's fic, _The Absence of Sound_, because it is awesome and made of total win; just like her. Other then that, here's your part, and enjoy your plot twist; though I get the feeling some of you might not appreciate it as much as others, but I hope that you can learn to live with that and still enjoy the fic despite this development. If you're wondering, the plot twist for this fic was inspired by one of hers... but she knows I love her.  
**Pairing:** Jasper/Jacob  
**Rating:** pg13  
**Words:** 6186 words  
**Disclaimer:** The _Twilight_ series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own the characters or anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise.

**Beneath the Blue**

The first thing that I was aware of was something cold brushing across my forehead. That and that I was feeling really sore and achy. I felt like I'd been hit by a truck, but that couldn't be right because I wasn't anywhere near a road, I was in the forest.

My brain had been really foggy when I'd been drifting back to consciousness, but at that thought everything snapped back into place and my eyes flew open. I tried to sit up, to get away, because the vampire could be back to get me at any moment, but strong hands held me down.

"Jacob... Jacob, Jake! Calm down, it's alright, you're safe." I looked up, seeing a ceiling and Jasper leaning over me, his hands on my shoulders, holding me down onto the hard surface. "You're safe..." he murmured again.

"... Jasper...?" I frowned. Where was I? What was going on? Hadn't I been attacked? I wasn't... dead, was I?

He felt my confusion, and loosened his hold on me, his hands sliding down my arms. He took one of my hands in his, and pressed his lips to my knuckles, "You're safe now, you don't need to worry. I got to you in time, before... before the venom had the chance to spread too much."

"I'm...?"

"You're still alive," he replied, his other hand coming to rest over my chest. That movement made me distinctly aware of the thundering beat of my heart in my chest. "I can still feel your heart beat, can still hear it. I can still smell your blood, feel it pulse through your veins..."

I blushed at the tone of his voice and the heat which it sent shooting straight down to my crotch. He smiled at seeing that, leaning down to press his lips to mine briefly before pulling away. I had to ask, "How bad am I?"

His smile fell just a little, "You got lucky, nothing broken, no serious injuries. You just lost a lot of blood when you were bitten and then I..."

"You what?" Wait. I'd been bitten. That meant that I'd been exposed to their venom. "The venom...?"

"The bite was clean," he began, pulling away from me. I whimpered at the loss of contact. "Even though it had been sealed using venom, I was able to reopen it without causing too much harm. I sucked the venom out; I was... you were... lucky enough to get there before it was too late."

"You... sucked... the venom out?" I needed him to confirm that.

"Yes. I didn't think that I could, but I did."

Well, that explained why I was hooked up to an IV that was pumping blood into me, now that I cared enough to actually look around and take in my surroundings. I was in a small room that looked like it might have been an examination room at a hospital, but I knew that they couldn't have brought me there; that would be suspicious.

"So, did you like how I tasted?"

Jasper gave a soft snort, and shook his head, "Only you would think to ask me that."

"Well? Do you?"

He crossed his arms and let his eyes close, "Yes, rich and sweet. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to stop myself before I killed you, but I did." He wrinkled his nose, "You're going to smell a little off for the next few hours; because of those transfusions that Carlisle gave you."

"I feel fine now." And it was true, I was feeling really energetic and I was eager to know how everything had gone with the others. I'd survived a vampire attack, and I'd survived having my vampire suck the venom out of me along with what was probably a lot of blood. But I'd be fine in a few hours, a day or two at the most. "Does that mean that I can get out of here? Cause I can think of a lot of things that I'd rather be doing right now."

He picked up on my arousal easily enough, and rolled his eyes but I'd done what I'd wanted to achieve. His eyes lightened and he returned to my side, letting me reach out and take his hand in mine. I pulled him closer and he slid up onto the side of the examination table beside me. He then gently removed his hand from mine, pulling me into a sitting position and into his lap as he wrapped his arms around my waist, careful of the IV which was still attached to my arm.

"So am I free to go now? Or do I have to wait till the doctor comes back?" I tilted my head back and let it rest on his shoulder, taking comfort in his presence. I'd missed him, especially since only a few short hours earlier I'd been panicking that I'd been about to die without getting to see him again.

"Carlisle has something that he wants to talk to us about."

"Did he say what it was?" I was a little worried. Had some of the venom already incorporated itself into my body before he'd gotten to me? But if that was the case, then wouldn't Carlisle have already told Jasper about it? That idea didn't sit too well with me, but it was the only one that really made any sense given what I knew and the circumstances. Unless it was another wolf-thing, but after the imprinting, I was pretty sure that nothing more surprising could happen.

Jasper shook his head, "He didn't say, but from his emotions, I don't _**think**_ that it's bad news, per say."

"So it's not the end of the world then." I nodded my head in agreement, settling down more comfortably in his lap to wait for Carlisle to return. "How long has he been gone?"

"About an hour and a half,"Jasper replied smoothly. "He left for the hospital shortly after he chased Bella out of here when she was trying to see you and find out what had happened."

There was a hard edge to his voice as he spoke, so I knew that something else had gone down while I'd been unconscious. Whatever had happened didn't seem like it was something he was proud of, but now I was curious so I asked, "What happened while I was out?"

He looked away from me and was then pointedly staring at the floor, "I let my... instincts get the better of me. I had just been so worried that I might not have made it in time that they started showing much more then they usually do. Bella was lucky that Carlisle and Edward held her back, or else I would have most likely attacked her."

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Instincts?"

"They will always be strongest when it comes to you, Jake," he explained. "If you're in danger, then nothing else at that moment would matter except getting to you and making sure that you're safe and unharmed. And if anyone or anything were to hurt you, then I wouldn't rest until they were dead." His arms tightened around my waist, "I won't let anything hurt you. What I want to do is keep you alive, safe, and happy; that's all that matters to me."

That made me smile just a little, and I snuggled closer, still feeling a little tired after all the excitement of the day, "Well then, we're in the same boat cause I'd do the same for you."

Jasper let out a content hum at that, and let me move closer, accommodating that by shifting his position on the examining table so that his back was pressed against the wall. He easily lifted me up so that I he could pull his legs up and set me down on them once they were crossed on the table. I felt completely safe in his arms and I had no plans on moving any time soon.

The IV in my arm was bugging me, though, and I wanted that out soon. Needles are a pain, especially when you heal as fast as we wolves do.

We wound up not having to wait too long for Carlisle to return. He walked into the room with a clipboard in front of his nose, lab coat still on, and with a thoughtful frown on his face as he entered. A quick glance up from whatever was on the papers in front of him told him that I was awake now, and he grabbed the nearby rolling office stool, and pulled it over so that he could sit beside us at the examination table.

"So, Jacob, how do you feel?" He began pleasantly, but the smile on his face looked a bit forced.

I shrugged, "I feel fine, just a little tired."

"Good, good." Carlisle nodded his head, and fiddled a little with the charts in front of him which from my vantage point looked a little like lab results. Had he been running tests on me while I'd been out cold?

He noticed the angle of my eyes, and followed them straight to his clipboard, he sighed, "I'm sorry about that, Jacob. But you were unconscious and I was curious to learn more about your people and the other shifters in the event that I have to treat one of you again; however, it was mostly for the curiosity factor. In your case, though, I wanted to make sure that there wasn't a trace of venom left, along with making sure that you hadn't suffered from any infections."

"We wolves don't get sick," I replied. "It's got something to do with our temperature."

Carlisle smiled and nodded, "I realized that after I'd taken your temperature, but I would rather err on the side of caution. You are, after all, still human Jacob, despite your rather unique genetics."

I couldn't argue with that so I just shrugged and went on using Jasper as a pillow and seat cushion, "There was something that you wanted to tell us?"

His face fell at the remainder, but he'd been the one who'd brought the subject up to Jasper and I wasn't going to let him off the hook so easily. And I knew Jasper was anxious to know too.

"I'll start at the beginning, then." Carlisle took a deep breath, trying to calm himself or steel himself for whatever news it was that he was going to deliver. "When I ran your blood Jacob, I noticed that there was an abnormally high level of a certain hormone. Since you're not completely human, I wasn't sure what to make of this so I called Sam and asked him if I could run a few tests on them to make sure that this was either completely natural or completely harmless.

"The two Clearwater siblings agreed to meet me at the hospital, since Forks is, as Bella calls it, 'neutral ground' where I drew enough blood to run several tests," he glanced back down at the results. "I can say for sure now that it isn't _**normal**_, but what I do know is that it isn't harmful."

I frowned, "What hormone was it?"

I thought back to high school biology and what little I'd learned during my health classes where they sometimes taught us about this stuff. I couldn't remember much, unfortunately.

"You have excessive amounts of human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG in your blood and if my guess is correct, then it'll show up in your urine as well if I were to run tests on that as well."

Now I was confused. I knew that I'd heard of hCG before, but I couldn't place where I'd heard of it, what it did, or what its presence meant. I had the knowledge, I knew that much, but my memory was being stupid and human and not letting me remember what I was sure that I knew.

Carlisle continued on, "I'm not sure whether I should be offering the two of you congratulations or if I should be panicking that there's something completely wrong."

Both Jasper and I stared at Carlisle like he was insane, because that had made absolutely no sense to either of us at all. Well, at least it didn't sound like it was bad news, which was good I suppose because that meant that I wasn't dying so Jasper had nothing to want to worry about.

He looked between the two of us, then his face broke out into a huge smile, "Well. Congratulations Jacob, Jasper. You two are going to parents."

Oh okay, so I wasn't dying; I was just pregnant.

Wait... _**WHAT?!**_

"Hold on," I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. "You're joking, right?"

The serious look on Carlisle's face was enough of an answer. Holy shit! How was this even possible?! I shouldn't be able to get pregnant! For one, I don't have the necessary... equipment down... _**there**_, to do that. And for another, I was pretty sure that I'd notice if I started growing another set of organs. Or at least, I think I would've; who knows what goes on inside your body?

I was too shocked to speak, and Jasper was apparently lost for words too, because all he got out was a broken, "How...?"

This Carlisle latched onto, "The most I have to go on is a theory. I guess that your body always knew that your other half was male and so it grew and developed outwardly as a male, but inwardly, you have more in common with a female. I won't actually know what's going on inside of you Jacob until I can take a look with the ultrasound in a few weeks at the hospital.

"As for how Jasper managed to..." he paused to clear his throat, "Managed to provide the necessary _**sperm**_ to create this child, my best guess would be that the venom mutated over the years, as though his body knew that this would happen, into something that could be used to fertilize an egg. This is something that, as far as I know, has never happened before."

"I'm pregnant..." I murmured. "I'm really pregnant?"

"Yes Jacob, you are," Carlisle confirmed for what had to be the third time today.

"How far?" I asked.

"Since you're not showing yet, and since this all happened recently, I'd say that you're probably no farther then a week along, give or take a few days."

Well that was true; up until I'd imprinted on Jasper, I'd been a virgin. And not only that, but he was the only one who I'd done any of this with, which left him as the only option as the one who'd fathered the baby. I was still having a hard time digesting the fact that yes I was pregnant and that it was real, and that in about nine months I'd be a mother.

Shut up, I know that sounded wrong, but it's true; plus, I don't really see Jasper as being very motherly.

Carlisle pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers, "This is a complete first. I have no idea if you'll even survive this Jacob or what may happen. So I must ask: do you want to keep the baby?"

I looked at him like he was insane, "Of course I do. I'm not about to kill it." But I had to pause as Jasper's arms again tightened around me; I knew that he was worried about whether or not I could survive this, and my survival and safety was more important to him then the baby, "Well, unless you think that it could kill me. But if I can carry it without any harm, then I want to have it."

"Well then," Carlisle grinned, "Congratulations to you two!"

"Thank you, Carlisle." Jasper's voice was soft, quiet, and chock full of surprise, gratitude and a whole other myriad of emotions that I couldn't put a name too, but I was getting a bucket full of them from him. I knew that he was excited about having a family.

A family. We were going to have a family and I wasn't even done high school yet.

Well screw that, I didn't think that I'd actually need to finish it anyway. If I wanted to, I could always go back and finish the years that I'd missed, but Jasper was, I knew, perfectly capable of providing for me and this unexpected development without even needing a job. There were advantages to having a vampire lover who'd already lived a lot longer then you. I guessed that I wouldn't need to work, ever, if I didn't want too.

But I also was incredibly relieved that Jasper was so open and happy about this. There were any number of ways that he could've taken this news, and yet he'd taken it surprisingly well. He was also willing to be a part of the child's life, to continue with me even though it meant the added responsibility of becoming a parent. I was overcome with a huge sense of relief, pride, and joy. I really had gotten the best deal in terms of who I'd imprinted on.

But still...

I looked down at my stomach, still in shock as to how the hell that I'd gotten pregnant with what was essentially a dead man's child. I pressed my hand over the still flat expanse of flesh through my shirt, knowing that in a few short months I'd be able to feel it growing inside there, and it would be visible. Carlisle said that I was probably, at most, a week in. He had no idea of how this was going to go, whether or not the baby would grow at what was considered a normal rate.

I had to tell my father.

Well shit, how was I supposed to tell him? For one thing, guys aren't supposed to _**get**_ pregnant so how the hell did I go about presenting him with a logical reason for why? I mean, yeah sure Jasper and I had sex; but I wasn't supposed to get pregnant. Carlisle only had vague theories as to why or how this had happened, but I had the sneaking suspicion that my dad probably already knew thought this was a slight possibility. If imprinting on vampires was possible, then why shouldn't being able to have their babies be just as much of a possibility?

And that sounded wrong, even in my head. I shook my head and smoothed one hand over my still flat stomach, feeling the nervousness well up inside of me only to have it quickly squashed with a wave of love and comfort.

I looked up to Jasper, who hadn't left my side once during the entire explanation and discovery. I couldn't see a trace of disgust or anger or hate in his eyes, just surprise. Jasper was just as taken aback by this as I was, only he seemed to be handling it much more calmly. Slowly, his hand came down to, tentatively, rest over mine on my stomach.

"In there is our child..." he murmured. "Are you sure Carlisle? You're not mistaking this for something else, are you?"

Carlisle shook his head with a small smile, "I've done as much research as I could, given the information, but the only explanation that I could find for that amount of hCG in his blood was that he's pregnant. Unless there's some strange underlying condition in the shifters which causes that amount of that particular hormone to be present, then there's no other explanation. And I ran tests on others of his kind, none of them showed the same abnormal levels as he did."

Idly, Jasper's long pale fingers stroked over mine, while his other hand held me tightly to him. When I peeked back at him, there was a wistfully happy smile on his face and I just knew that he'd be the best father, he'd dote on our child, whether it was male or female. I wanted to keep the child, despite my age, and I was just infinitely relieved that he seemed to want to keep it too. That brought warm feelings surging up inside of me, and Jasper felt them too, because the next thing I knew he'd pressed his lips to my temple.

"So he's about a week along?" Jasper asked for confirmation. "That... coincides with – yes Jacob?"

I blushed and looked away, rubbing my now sore elbow after I'd shoved it into his stomach to keep him from talking about our sex life. That was one topic that i wanted kept strictly between him and me, even if Carlisle needed to know, I'd rather that he only find out if it was absolutely necessary.

"Don't talk about that stuff." I shot Carlisle an embarrassed look, to which he responded with a small, comforting smile.

And even though Jasper seemed perfectly okay with the fact that I was pregnant with his baby and was going to keep it, I just really wanted to make sure. I just wanted some verbal confirmation of the subject.

"So you're really okay with this?"

"Yes, more then that, I'm ecstatic." As though to prove his point, he leaned down and pressed a blistering kiss to my lips before pulling back with one of the most dazzling smiles I'd ever seen on him. He turned to Carlisle, the smile still lingering on his lips, "There... won't be any complications, will there?"

Carlisle shrugged, "This is my first male pregnancy, Jasper. I have no idea of what may happen while Jacob's carrying this child; there are any number of complications that could occur in a normal pregnancy, but added onto that is the fact that Jacob is male and these could easily turn deadly whereas they wouldn't usually prove to be so."

"You'll be his physician, of course."

"Do I get a say in this?" I asked. "Not that I have any objections about Carlisle looking after me while I'm carrying the baby, but I kind of like being included in a conversation that involves me when I'm in the room while it's going on."

"I'm sorry." Another kiss pressed to my temple as both of Jasper's hands came to rest over my stomach and I moved mine so that they were now resting over his. "Is there anything that we should be aware of Carlisle?"

He hummed in thought for a moment, "I'll give you some literature on the subject, but for now... Jacob, there's a high chance that you'll start to suffer from morning sickness in about two to three weeks. It's fairly common during the first trimester. As well, you might feel fatigued during this time, and mood swings may or may not happen. I'll start you on prenatal vitamins."

I frowned, "Why do I need vitamins?"

Carlisle was already writing out the prescription, "It's for the baby, Jacob. They'll compensate for any deficiencies that may happen; it's standard for all pregnancies these days. If you have any questions or concerns, you can bring them to me now or later as they come to you. I'm going to keep a close eye on you Jacob, until this child is born."

"Sure, sure. I'm fine with that."

"There's no one else who'd be more suited to this situation then you, Carlisle," Jasper was saying. "I know that you'll take good care of Jacob and our baby."

He smiled warmly at us, like a father would, "I would do no less. I can tell that the two of you mean a lot to each other and I'll do anything that's in my power to make sure that you both are healthy and well taken care of. You know that we think of you as family, Jacob."

"I know."

"Do you want to tell them, or shall I?" Carlisle smiled.

I shot a hesitant glance at Jasper before answering that, "Um, if you don't mind, I'd like to tell my dad that we're, you know, gonna be parents and that he's gonna be a grandfather before we tell the rest of the... family, that they're gonna be aunts and uncles. Oh." I thought of something, "I guess this means that you and Esme are going to be grandparents then."

Jasper chuckled at that.

Apparently everyone in the Cullen family had a bit of a strange sense of humour, because Carlisle then said, "Well, after over three hundred years it's about time, I suppose."

"Fuck! How old are you?!" I was surprised, none of the Cullens had ever really acknowledged their real ages to me. I guessed that it was because to them, it didn't really matter.

"I am three hundred and sixty eight," Carlisle replied evenly with a small smile and a twinkle in his eyes while he looked at me. I could tell that he was amused; either that, or this was all some private joke to them. I'd suspected that Carlisle was old, but not _**that**_ old. Or maybe I had, it didn't matter right then.

But I still had to tell my dad that I was pregnant and that I was going to be keeping the baby. This was going to be a long, difficult conversation, and I had no idea how my dad would take the news, and that made me nervous as hell.

"Well let's go tell Billy that he's gonna get grandkids after all."

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

Jasper wound up running back to my house with me tucked carefully onto his back and pointedly not looking at the forest as it flashed by. I was worried about the possible nausea that doing so might incur given the fact that I was pregnant, even though I wasn't that far along yet. Still, I didn't want to take the chance of being violently sick all over either the forest ground or Jasper's back.

The trip was largely spent in a comfortable silence which I didn't mind at all. Jasper's movements as he ran were smooth and didn't jar me at all, but I suspected that he was also making a huge effort to make sure that he didn't do anything unexpected.

We reached my house in a matter of minutes, and my nervousness about telling my dad had built back up into a huge mountain inside of me. In fact, I was beyond just that, I was downright terrified about having to confront him about this because there was that sinking feeling in my chest that he wasn't going to take the news all that well.

Jasper led me into the house, opening the door for me like a gentlemen, and then pulling out a chair for me at the kitchen table as my dad wheeled himself in. Then he took up what could've been considered a protective stance behind me, his arms crossed and his eyes glued to me since I could feel them boring into the back of my head.

"So, you're back later then I thought," Billy greeted. He only gave Jasper a slight nod of greeting. "Sam said something had happened, cause your vampire tore out of that clearing like a bat out of hell."

I blushed, and decided not to reprimand my father about addressing Jasper by his name, especially when he was in the same room as us, but since he was my dad and he deserved to know, I explained what happened. "Uh, yeah. I got ambushed by one of the leeches on my way back from where I was with Bella and Edward... he bit me –"

"WHAT?!"

"I just said he bit me." I hated having to repeat myself. "But let me finish before you have a huge panic attack dad! See, I would've been dead or turned, but Jasper managed to reach me in time to suck the venom back out before it could have any negative effects on me."

Billy cast a critical eye over me, his eyes lingering for too long on the now scarring over bite which was on my neck. He didn't say anything about that, but, "And how can you be sure about that?"

"Carlisle looked over me. Jasper took me back to the house; I was unconscious, and Carlisle ran some tests and checked me out, and he says that I'm perfectly healthy." Just minus the fact that I've got a baby growing inside of me, but you're going to find that out shortly anyhow, so I'll tell you later.

"Is that why he needed Leah and Seth to go over to the hospital? To make sure that all those tests that he was running on you were coming out normal?"

"Well yeah, you could say that."

Since that clearly wasn't the answer that my dad wanted, he gave me a sharp glare which clearly told me to quit bullshitting and just tell him what the hell was wrong. Or going on, it depended on how you viewed the situation. I was still beyond nervous, and my fear had crept back into my stomach, making me tremble and look pointedly at anything but my dad.

"Um... you see dad... Carlisle didn't exactly needed Leah and Seth to make sure that I was alive, he needed them because he needed to confirm his suspicions about... about me..." I paused, taking a deep breath. My nerves weren't helping me **_at all_**.

Billy was giving me that harsh look again, "Spit it out Jake."

I took a deep breath. Okay, if that was how he wanted it, then fine, I'd say it.

"I'm pregnant."

Several minutes passed, stretched out too long as my dad stared at me with this look of absolute horror and shock on his face. This was clearly the last thing he'd ever expected to be told, and I just knew right then that he wasn't going to take it well. And that knowledge hurt, it hurt to know that my dad wouldn't accept the fact that I was pregnant with Jasper's child and he would hate me even more because I'd decided that I was going to keep it.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes," Jasper spoke for the first time. "Carlisle confirmed it."

My dad's face seemed to drain of all blood for a few seconds, before it all rushed back, making him turn an extremely angry shade of red. He pointed at me accusingly, his face contorted into one of pure anger, "Get rid of it. Go back to the vampire doctor and tell him that there's no way in hell that you're gonna keep it."

I was horrified, "What?! **_You want me to kill it?!_**"

"That... **_thing_** isn't human Jacob!" My dad was shouting now. He was clearly furious with me, and even more angry that I was so horrified that he wanted me to get rid of it when I wanted to keep it. "It'll kill you! And then it'll turn on the rest of us and kill us too! You have to kill it; it's your duty!"

"No."

"What do you mean no?! I'm the elder, **_I'm your father Jacob_**, and if I say you're not keeping it then you're not! You're getting rid of that monster whether you like it or not!"

I was on the verge of crying right now, but I was angry too, more so then I was feeling hurt, "Fuck no! I – we – are going to keep this baby! It's my choice! It's my body, and I can do with it whatever the fucking hell I want! If I want to have my vampire lover's child with it, then I damn well can!"

"The pack won't stand for this! They'll have to destroy it, and they'll destroy you if they have to Jacob, because they can't take the chance of it getting lose and killing us all!"

Oh boy, now I was crying. Stupid hormones. Stupid tear-duct being linked to my anger and to the fact that I was feeling hurt because my father was rejecting me, rejecting the child which was going to be his grandchild. Overall, I was just really pissed off, but above all, I was in a lot of pain.

"You're calling this child inhuman, you're calling it a monster, without even giving it a chance to defend itself! You're denying my baby a future because of prejudices against vampires! Well fuck that! Jasper's more human then you'll ever be if this is how you'd treat your grandchild!"

"Jake..." Jasper's hands were immediately on my shoulders, sending waves of calm into me to prevent me from doing something that we both knew that I'd regret. No matter how pissed off I was, the last thing that I wanted to do – even though I was horrified at my father's reaction to my pregnancy – was phase on my dad and probably tear his head off, along with completely trash the kitchen.

I wanted to be there in my child's life, and I couldn't do that if I was in jail. Come to think of it, if I was in jail, then there was a pretty high chance that I wouldn't last long, and neither would the baby. With Jasper's calming influence, I was able to properly think through the consequences of my actions, and also helped me to realize that it just wasn't worth it.

Turning away from my father, I grabbed Jasper's hand and pulled him gently towards the kitchen door, "C'mon Jasper, let's go let the others know that they're gonna be aunts and uncles."

He hesitated for a moment, clearly feeling my anguish and the whirlwind of feelings that I was experiencing. I just couldn't understand how my dad couldn't accept this, couldn't accept that I was carrying Jasper's baby and that I wanted to keep it. He'd seemed perfectly fine with my imprint, so what was so wrong with the fact that it meant that I was pregnant? Imprinting, after all, did have a lot to do with procreation; it didn't just have to do with finding the one who completed you.

"Of course." Jasper gracefully let me have my way, but I knew that I'd have to deal with him later. He'd comfort me and make sure that I knew that I was loved and would always have a place with him once we had the time and it was just the two of us. He draped an arm over my shoulder, pulling me close to my side as we left the house, my dad fuming and yelling and ranting behind us.

Once we were outside, Jasper turned to me, wrapping me up tightly in his arms for several moments, murmuring, "It'll be alright Jake, you'll see. I love you, and if Billy doesn't come around... well, you'll always have a place with our family."

"I know, but I don't wanna think about the fact that I've practically just been disowned right now. Let's just go and tell the others, okay? This is supposed to be _**good**_ news."

He smiled as he let me onto his back so that we could return to the Cullen household, "Rose will be thrilled."

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

Whoa, that was fun to write. This part actually took me longer then I thought it would, because I wrote about five pages of it in one day, which was the day I posted the last part. Aren't you guys proud of me? And what do you think of the twist? I know that some of you will be disappointed that it's mpreg (you expressed this in your reviews, and I respect that), but when I got down to thinking about it; I guess that it does make a lot of sense. I'll have an explanation, or at least I'll try, in later chapters. Carlisle will explain it. He just needs more information.

So leave me a review and tell me what you think both of the twist and just of this fic altogether. I want to get at least one other part finished before November hits, because by that point I'm going to be going all out on _Complexity_ so I can meet the NaNo expectations.

Thanks everyone! You're all amazing!

Twilight.

**IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:** Okay, everyone! I have good news! Well, not good, it's great! This fic has been nominated at The Indie TwiFic Awards for Best Canon or AU That Knocks Your Socks Off, WIP. I'd like to thank whoever it was who nominated me, and I'd encourage all of you to go and vote for this fic. As it seems, the only other person nominated who writes Twislash is starry, for Basic Imprinting. How about we show these canon fans how it's done?


	13. IX Take Me Home

**Notes:** Um yeah... I have really no excuse for why this part took me so long to write except for the fact that I just couldn't figure out how to set it to words – the ideas were there, but the way to write them wasn't – so I worked on other fics while I waited for the inspiration to bloom some more. And there is a time skip from the last chapter to this one; again, sorry about how long this took... BUT IT IS ALMOST DONE.  
**Part:** IX. Take Me Home  
**Pairing: **Jasper/Jacob  
**Rating:** pg13  
**Words:** 4518 words  
**Disclaimer:** The _Twilight_ series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own the characters or anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise. Anything unfamiliar you see is mine.

**Take Me Home**

_**Three weeks later...**_

According to both Carlisle and the stuff that he'd given me and Jasper to read, I wouldn't start to really show until about the fourth or fifth month. I thought it was good, because that meant that I wouldn't have to go through the awkward process of having to explain to my best friend that I'd somehow wound up pregnant. I had no idea about how she would take it and I didn't want to add any unnecessary stress or worry onto the ones she already had.

Even with Alice planning the wedding – with just a little bit of help from Esme – she still had a lot on her mind. For one, she had to worry about the change that she was going to have to go through, and how she was going to deal with her parents. After all, they'd want to see her before she went to 'university' in Alaska, and she wouldn't be able to see them since it wouldn't be safe.

Edward knew though, but he didn't say anything about it which was something that I was grateful for.

Once Jasper and I found out that I was pregnant, he absolutely refused to leave my side. I knew he was worried about me, but that didn't mean that he could stop looking after his own needs because of it. Despite all the teasing that I had to put up with from Emmett about being knocked up, it was with his help that I managed to convince Jasper that he still needed to feed and that I'd be okay at the house.

That didn't meant that I was being left at the Cullen house _**alone**_. Nope, Rosalie's attitude towards me had improved quite a bit. I wasn't sure if it was because I was pregnant or if it was because she genuinely had started to like me, but it was nice to have her as a... friend. I didn't want to be the source of antagonism in the family.

So with either Jasper or Rosalie with me at almost all times, it was a little restricting. The pack had been pretty quiet about the whole deal, and I thought that they were probably deliberating on what to do about me and the fact that I was pregnant.

None of them had come by, and my dad was very pointedly ignoring me. Charlie had stopped by a few times to ask what was up and just to check up on the wedding preparations, but I just told him that it was something that he needed to work out for himself. I'm pretty sure, though, that Charlie knew that I was hurt by my dad's rejection, but he didn't say anything more about it except to offer some comfort.

Although, it was pretty funny to see his face when he found out that Jasper and I were an item. I think it might have given him the wrong idea about why Billy and I were having our little spat, but it was better then letting him on the truth.

One new thing started up that really annoyed me. I started getting what Carlisle called morning sickness about a week before the wedding. But luckily enough, that was really the only symptom that I noticed.

Despite the fact that it was really gross to be throwing up every morning, Jasper was always there to comfort me whenever I had my now daily sojourn with the toilet. It was something that I appreciated, even though the both of us could definitely agree that the smell of it was horrible; and I hated having that aftertaste of vomit in my mouth for hours afterwards. But Carlisle had assured us that it would most likely start to taper off as I got farther along.

The invites had been sent out a few weeks before the wedding, but it wasn't until the week before that the guests themselves started to trickle in.

Bella's mom, Renée, had flown in from Florida with her husband and were awkwardly staying with Charlie at his house. I knew that Esme would have been glad to let them stay with her and the rest of her family, but it would be a little difficult to explain why there weren't any beds in most of the bedrooms and why the kitchen didn't seem very lived in.

A lot of Bella's high school friends had been invited too, and all of them were excited about seeing one of their friends getting married. I think that their acceptance of the situation helped allay some of her nerves just a bit.

On the Cullens hand, the Denali coven had been invited down from Alaska – only minus one member. Apparently one of the sisters, Irina, was still very bitter about the fact that my pack had killed that vampire which had come to Forks with the intentions of killing Bella. But the other members didn't seem to hold a grudge against the Cullens over the issue, which was something that I was glad for. All of them were also very nice to me, which really surprised me.

"Oh don't worry about it! None of us really liked Laurent except for Irina, and, to be honest, she's never had exactly great taste in men," Kate was saying with a huge smile.

Tanya rolled her eyes at her sister, "I wouldn't say that yours is much better. You need to stop crawling over men; especially when they just look at you the first time that they meet you and promptly tell you that they're already very happily married."

Pouting, Kate crossed her arms, "And who was the one pining after Edward all these years?"

At that, Tanya actually smacked her sister across the arm, "That was a perfectly acceptable attraction; it wasn't like I actually expected it to go anywhere behind something physical."

Both Kate and Tanya reminded me a little of my own sisters, and that was comforting to have around. Neither of them commented about the smell, but it seemed like they easily enough picked up on the fact that I was pregnant and jumped on it like a pack of ravenous dogs.

Tanya kept prodding my stomach, "Really? There's really a baby in there?"

"I just told you that," I replied, scowling as I swatted her hands away for the millionth time. "And stop feeling up my stomach; it's not like you can actually feel it move yet."

"When will that be?" Kate asked, curiosity burning in her gold eyes. "We're going to have to stick around for that; I've never felt a baby kick."

I glared at her, "I'm not some curiosity that you can ogle at and poke, and neither is my baby. So stop talking like I'm not here."

Carmen sighed, shooing the two vampires away, "Tanya, Kate, behave yourselves please. I know you're excited about the wedding and the fact that we will soon have a new addition to our extended family, but that doesn't mean that you can treat him as such."

Both of the female vampires had the decency to look chastised, and after apologizing to me for their behaviour, they went upstairs to chat with Alice about the wedding before going to introduce themselves to Bella.

Once they were gone, Carmen turned to me with a very maternal smile on her face; it reminded me of Esme's. "I must apologize for Tanya and Kate's actions, once they get themselves excited there simply isn't any stopping them."

"It's alright," I replied automatically. I was starting to get used to vampires wanting to poke at my stomach; even I was guilty of excessively touching it, I'd run my hands over it, marvelling at the fact that under all that flesh, I was carrying and nurturing another life. It was just a lot to take in. "Sometimes I get a little carried away about this too."

She laughed, a musical sound that was comforting in its warmth, "Yes I can imagine that it is. You and Jasper must be very happy."

"He worries over me more often then not; I think he's more panicked about all of this then I am, which kind of sucks because he does a shit job of trying to hide it from me." But I still couldn't help but smile, "But yeah, he's as excited about this as I am. I think it's just because Carlisle wants to treat me with kid gloves and he just doesn't want to step out of line and do something potentially harmful."

Our sex life had suffered quite a bit since it had come out that I was pregnant. It wasn't like it had completely ground to a halt – the newness of the imprint still hadn't worn off so we kind of still were trying to fuck each other's brains out – but there wasn't as much experimentation as I'd thought there would be. More or less we were sticking to what was safe.

I didn't really see the point in it since I wasn't that far along, but this was something that Jasper couldn't be moved on and I just had to accept it. We'd talked it over somewhat, and we thought that it would probably be best if after this pregnancy Carlisle started me on birth control just to be sure that we wouldn't start populating the world with babies.

"All men seem to get like that," Carmen replied. "Even when you're not with child, they still hover over you and want to protect you with all their might. On occasion Eleazar is like that as well; I'm quite sure it's a vampire trait, to be overprotective of one's mate."

I'd heard that term thrown around quite a bit, but no one had really taken the time to explain it to me. "Is a mate sort of like the vampire version of our imprinting?"

"I wouldn't know about imprinting," Carmen began. "But our mates are our other half. We might be able to love others, but when our mate comes, then it's only them who we can give ourselves to fully and completely." She shrugged, "No one has ever really looked into it, we only know how we feel when we find them."

I nodded. It was sort of like imprinted; even we didn't know all of the details when it came to it, we just knew what it was when it happened. Your entire world shifted to revolve around them, that was how it was, and I guessed with vampires it was a similar thing.

Carmen interrupted my thoughts, "Well, with one wedding in the next few days, do you suppose that you'll want to have your turn to walk down the aisle, Jacob?"

"Not really." I hadn't given much thought to marriage; it didn't really matter to me. And besides, I was pretty sure that it wasn't recognized in the state of Washington. Even growing up I hadn't thought much about getting married, I didn't really care one way or another.

"I see," Carmen replied. "You're content with how things are then?"

"Yep. I don't need a piece of paper to tell me that Jasper and I belong together." I grinned at her, "I know he won't leave, I'm fine with not getting married."

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

The Denali clan hadn't come alone, they'd brought along a 'guest' who had run into them on their way down and travelled the rest of the way with them. Apparently he was an old acquaintance of Carlisle's, because his appearance didn't seem to set off any warning bells.

The rest of the Cullens, though, were just as confused as I was about him; apparently he'd never dropped by for visits before.

"Carlisle," he greeted with a small smile. "I didn't expect to find you with such an extensive family."

Carlisle shook his hand, smiling warmly at him, "It's been what? Two hundred years since we last met? Setsune, you should have come to visit before now!"

"Ah, my apologies Carlisle." He bowed politely.

I could tell he was Asian, even though he didn't have the accent that I'd come to expect. I guess he'd been speaking English for so long that his accent had simply worn off; I couldn't think of a more plausible explanation. How he knew Carlisle was still up in the air. But if they'd met some two hundred years ago, then that meant that they'd met some time in the nineteenth century – and that was just a rough guess on my part.

Setsune was also the definition of a pretty boy. I couldn't say that he wasn't without his masculine traits, but he was definitely more on the pretty side then handsome side, in my opinion at least.

When he'd entered the house, Jasper had been at my side protectively. His eyes followed the other vampire's movements carefully, trying to gauge if he would be a threat or not. It didn't take too long for him to settle down – and some work on my part to convince him that it was fine and that the other vampire clearly wasn't hear to rip my head off or something.

"You need to mellow out a bit," I commented dryly, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek once he'd calmed down a little.

The arm around my waist tightened a bit in a one-armed hug and I got one of those heart-warming smiles of his in response. I'd done good.

"I'm very glad you're here Setsune," Carlisle was saying as he escorted the vampire into the main part of the first floor. "My son is getting married."

The entire Cullen family – plus me and Bella – had assembled on the main floor to meet this old friend of Carlisle's, and all of us were feeling a bit on edge. If it wasn't for Jasper keeping us all calm then Bella or I probably would've been a nervous wreck more then anyone else.

Setsune actually seemed genuinely surprised to hear that; he raised an eyebrow as he asked, "Really? I wasn't aware that you had children Carlisle."

"Well, we are not related in the biological sense, but I do consider them my children," Carlisle replied with a smile. He held out his hand to Esme, "My wife, Esme."

Esme swept forward, smiling broadly at the newcomer, "It's such a pleasure to meet you, Setsune. I hope that you'll be comfortable during your time here; will you be staying for the wedding?"

Setsune bowed politely to her before accepting her warm hug, "I don't think I will be able to refuse your generous hospitality and invitations. If I may, who is the lucky couple?"

This was Edward and Bella's cue; the two of them swept forward – Bella stumbling a little over her feet as she did so – but otherwise it was smooth. I couldn't help but smile a little at Bella's clumsiness, and wondered absently if that was something she'd carry over into her vampire life. It was an interesting thought.

Again, Setsune bowed to them both as they introduced themselves, "It's a pleasure to meet the both of you, and I wish you good health and happiness in your upcoming union."

Bella blushed – a bright crimson color that stood out, "Th-thank you."

He smiled at her, "You are very welcome." He turned to Edward, "You are very lucky to have found her."

"I know," Edward chuckled.

Not to be outdone, Rosalie and Emmett came forward next, introducing themselves as well. And Rosalie was definitely pleased because Setsune didn't waste the opportunity to flatter her almost immediately.

"Ah, it is very rare to meet such a beauty." He smiled at Emmett, "It's an honour to meet the both of you."

Alice had been lurking at my side, and when it was her turn, she danced forward, keeping one arm twined around mine as we went. The moment we stepped forward, we had Setsune's full attention, and I noticed that he was staring more at me then at either Jasper or Alice.

Even though his attention was clearly focused on me more then Alice or Jasper, he still was very cordial to the both of them and paid Alice several compliments on what little of the wedding preparations that he had seen being done around the house. He even congratulated Jasper when we were introduced as being a couple.

I didn't miss how Jasper's arm tightened around my waist.

But Setsune's attention was quickly pulled away by Carlisle who had a few questions that he wanted to ask his friend. The other members of the Cullen clan dispersed; Emmett and Rosalie disappeared back upstairs, while Edward and Bella slipped back out since Bella was supposed to be at home with her parents but had excused herself to do some 'wedding preparations' with Alice.

Of course, Alice had a lot still to do, so she quietly excused herself and went back outside to continue with her preparations for the wedding extravaganza that she was planning.

"What brings you down this way?" Carlisle asked. "The last I heard from you, you were resolved to return to Japan."

Setsune smiled a little enigmatically, "Business."

"I wasn't aware that you had any business in the Americas."

"It's not my business, per say," Setsune replied. "My mate had something that needed to be dealt with, so I came along. It was only chance which let me meet your friends from Denali on my way in, and from them I heard that you were living in the area."

This seemed surprising. I wondered where Setsune's mate could be and what they'd be like; if he was coming to the wedding, then his mate would definitely be there.

Carlisle seemed surprised by the news too, "I didn't know that you had a mate. When did you meet them?"

"This isn't my first time in America," Setsune replied. "I came here maybe... fifty or so years after I last saw you – sometime in the 1860s, I believe – and I happened to meet my mate during my travels. Or rather, they found me."

Setsune was pretty tight-lipped about his mate and wouldn't give any details, but once Carlisle and Esme were done making him feel welcome in their home they left, leaving Jasper and I alone with him.

Once again, his attention shifted to me. I couldn't see anything cruel or dark in his face or eyes, and he seemed to be... curious I think about me. Jasper seemed at ease too, so I could only assume that Setsune wasn't giving off any threatening vibes.

Finally, he broke the silence, "You are of the Quileute tribe Jacob?"

I nodded.

He absorbed that information, and he seemed to drift off into thought. I heard him mutter something that sounded like, _so that's why_, but I couldn't be sure since I didn't catch anything else before he was too lost in thought.

Jasper and I left him to his thoughts.

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

Since Emmett insisted, Edward was getting a bachelor party. I wasn't happy about this and threatened him pretty badly about how he better not be planning something dirty or else I'd do something drastic. He probably wouldn't have taken my threats seriously – or Bella's for that matter – if it wasn't for the fact that Rosalie happened to join in on my side.

One way to win against Emmett: Get Rosalie involved, you will win every time.

Luckily, Emmett caved to our threats and organized an overnight hunting trip out in an area that the Cullens didn't usually frequent. According to Jasper, they'd probably play a few games to see who could catch the most prey or who took down the biggest. Even though it was completely unnecessary, I told him to be careful.

Jasper chuckled, "Don't worry about me; I'll be fine. Those predators won't be able to touch me."

I'd seen him and Edward in combat; I knew he would be fine. But still...

He pulled me into his arms, kissing the top of my head as he did so. I returned the gesture, wrapping my arms around his waist. We stayed like that for several long seconds before he pulled back enough to kiss me senseless.

"I'll be back in the morning; you won't even know I'm gone."

Both Rosalie and I saw them off as they went to pick up Edward from Bella's house. The wedding was the next day, and even I was a little surprised to find that Edward usually **_did_** spend the night at Bella's house. Then again, Jasper did the same with me and we were sharing the same room so... maybe it wasn't so different. But we weren't the ones getting married.

Alice was too preoccupied with last minute details to be any use as a distraction for me – I still couldn't get over the separation whenever Jasper left, even though I knew that he had to go – and while Rosalie had definitely improved in temperament, she and I didn't have much in common except our mutual love of cars. And I wasn't allowed to help her tinker because I was pregnant; it sucked. We got along fine now, but she also had a few things she wanted to get done before the wedding, and excused herself.

I didn't know where Carlisle and Esme were, and no one was around to baby-sit me so I did something that was a little risky.

At first, I'd thought the roof was completely deserted, but it wasn't until I nearly lost my balance on a loose shingle that I was informed otherwise. A cold hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me back before I could fall off the roof.

I was a little surprised to find Setsune up there.

His dark golden eyes took in my appearance, "I didn't expect to be interrupted, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Sorry, I didn't think anyone would be up here," I replied sheepishly. He'd released my wrist once he was sure that I wasn't going to tumble off the roof and to the ground below. "If you want, I can go; I just wanted a little fresh air."

He smiled, returning to his seat on one side of the roof, "No, I don't mind. You may join me, if you like."

I did, taking a seat a reasonable distance away from him. I looked up at the sky; I could see the stars really well from here, even better then back in La Push, probably better then in Forks.

The two of us sat in silence for what seemed like ages. I didn't know much about Setsune, but something gave me the feeling that he probably knew more about me then I thought he did. After a few more minutes of staring at the sky, Setsune broke the silence.

"You're pregnant, are you not?"

It took me a little aback; I hadn't known vampires could tell. "Wha – yeah I am, but how–"

He actually chuckled at that, "It's very faint, but I can hear its heartbeat. The signs are there, if you know what you're looking for."

I had to admit, I bit down on that bit of information, "What signs? The only symptoms I've got are morning sickness and a bit of fatigue." Even Jasper had admitted that if it wasn't for Carlisle's diagnosis, he wouldn't be aware that I was pregnant.

"The faint echo of your child's heartbeat, and the very, very faint hint in your scent," Setsune replied. "Of course, I can't be sure of that as I wasn't acquainted with you before your pregnancy but it will become more obvious the further along you are; I'm sure that Jasper has at least started to notice it."

"You sound like you're speaking from experience."

Setsune shrugged, smirking now, "It's not the first time that I've encountered your kind; back in the nineteenth century, I had a bit of a run-in with a few of the Quileute shifters. It was a... life changing experience."

He was definitely speaking cryptically for a reason, but he seemed like he was dropping clues; like this was a mystery that I was supposed to figure out for myself. I had suspicions, but those were pretty damn useless without anything to back them up.

"And one of those shifters was pregnant?"

He shook his head, "No that came later... much later, after the banishment."

"Banishment?" Now I was confused; confused and very, **_very_** intrigued about just what the hell it was that Setsune was talking about.

He nodded, and the silence fell again. I wanted to ask him about the banishment that he'd just spoken of, but I got the feeling that he was going to explain it to me anyway and I'd just have to wait and be patient. Eventually, he elaborated.

"My mate was banished from the Quileute tribe for imprinting on me."

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

I kept wanting to write this chapter in third-person because I've gotten so used to it. This is the only fic that I'm writing which is in first-person, mostly because I prefer third to first but it took a little time to get back into the swing of it. I should have the next part up relatively soon, I'll start working on it immediately but right now I want to get some sleep.

And if you're wondering, I wrote this entire part in one sitting, and yes, I know I'm evil for ending it when I did. You'll just have to wait and see what happens next.

Setsune and his mate were originally supposed to appear in another fic of mine, but since I don't know if I'll continue that one, I also included them in here since I felt that they'd fit in and offer up a bit of an explanation, cetera. I hope that Setsune is received well, his mate will appear in the next part.

As always, comment or review if you enjoyed this!

Twilight.


	14. X The Morning Dawned

**Notes:** I would have had this part completed and posted last night, but some stuff came up in RL that had to be done, so I had to put it aside for the moment but it's done and ready to be posted now. So, um, here's your next chapter! Oh yeah, please note that any inaccuracies between the backstory given by Jasper in this chapter and whatever the hell Meyer says is completely my fault since she's already fucked up her history in the books enough, and I'm trying to be as accurate to it as possible.  
**Part:** Part X [ The Morning Dawned ]  
**Pairing:** Jasper/Jacob  
**Rating:** pg13  
**Words:** 6499 words  
**Disclaimer:** The _Twilight_ series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own the characters or anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise. Anything unfamiliar you see is mine.

**The Morning Dawned**

After some difficulty, Setsune managed to make me promise that I wouldn't tell anyone about the revelation that he'd made to me the night before. It was a hard one to keep – especially from Edward – because it was constantly poking at my brain to think more on it, which was something I couldn't do. So instead I had to force myself to think about the wedding and remembering what I was supposed to do, and how the hell I was supposed to put on the suit that Alice had laid out for me.

I managed to stumble my way through putting it on, but the tie sort of stumped me. Luckily though, Jasper had kept his promise about coming back as quickly as possible; he'd been back by the time the sun was just cresting the horizon.

Needless to say he hadn't been very happy about finding me on the roof.

He sighed, exasperated, "Sometimes Jake I wish that you would be a little more careful; you're not indestructible, you know."

"So you keep saying; I'm fine though. I didn't fall off the roof, and even if I did I still would've been able to land without hurting myself." I'll admit, I was probably a bit shorter with him then usual, but the stress was starting to get to me.

Even though I was being a bit mean to him, his hands were still extremely gentle as he tied my tie, making sure it was snug but not uncomfortable. "I know, but you need to remember that you're not the only one who's relying on you for survival."

I could feel his cool touch as his hand pressed softly to my stomach, letting me know that he was just as concerned about the baby as he was about me. And he was probably a little more concerned about me at this point since I'd had that very recent brush with death. I sighed; I just couldn't stay angry at him for very long, it was a bit of a hopeless cause.

Wrapping my arms around his waist, I mumbled out an apology into his shoulder; not feeling like I could meet his eyes without feeling a bit ashamed of myself. There were a few scattered times that I did forget that I was carrying our baby, and I hated to be reminded about that; it made me feel like shit.

Jasper just held me close to him, "It's alright... just try and be a little more careful."

The two of us stayed like that for several moments that felt like forever, but it had to end because he needed to go and stay with Edward and I needed to go make sure Bella was ready. I was a little surprised that Edward had asked him to be his best man, but I wasn't going to complain. Eventually Jasper pulled away, kissing me one more time before leaving to go and join the rest of Edward's wedding party.

Alice came and got me a few minutes later, doing a little last minute straightening of my suit and tucking a flower into the lapel of my jacket.

"Bella wants to see you." She pulled me out of the room, going at human speed. "And she wants you to see her dress too."

It took me a few moments to figure out why she was, because Alice usually was always doing this at vampire speed. But then I remembered that we had a lot of humans in the house and outside, so she couldn't afford to arouse any suspicion about her family – well, more than there already was. People had hunches, it was a small town, you couldn't expect anything else when there's a shortage of good gossip and a family of very pretty people who call your town home.

Even on the reserve they were objects of interest; especially since they never came down to the beach like almost every other teen in the town did. Only those who knew about the treaty and the truth knew the reasons for why that was.

Bella was waiting in Alice's room with her parents along with two of her other friends from Forks High – I think their names were Jessica and Angela – who I recognized from seeing them down on First Beach on occasion. The blond was chattering away with Renée about Bella's dress and the decorations and everything, while the brunette was very quietly talking to Bella about what sounded like her plans for the future.

"You and Ben split?" Bella was asking. She paused and gave me a smile as I came in before returning her full attention to her friend. "Why? You two always seemed like you could weather any storm that life could throw at you."

The brunette smiled, "It's alright, Bella. Ben and I both know that we don't really have it in us to keep up with the stress of a long distance relationship, so we decided together that it would be better if we just broke it off. We're staying friends though."

"You really thought this through, Ang." Bella frowned, "Are you sure about it though? I mean, I can't really picture you with anyone but Ben."

"You don't have to worry about me, Bella," Angela – because I was pretty sure that was who she was – replied. "I've really thought this through, and I know it's for the best. Ben has his plans for the future, and I've got mine; they're just no compatible. It's really okay, I'll find someone eventually; I can wait."

"If you're sure..."

"I am." She turned to me, smiling. "Hi, you're Jacob, right?"

"Uh, yeah," I held out my hand and shook hers. "And you're Angela?"

She nodded, "It's good to meet Bella's best man; I've seen you around Forks and La Push. I'm glad to see that you and Bella patched up whatever rough spot the two of you were having."

I was a little surprised; I hadn't expected her to be as perceptive as she was. But I tried not to let that get to me – Bella also gave me this knowing little look as though to say 'she's always like this'. I could see why she liked Angela, though; she was sweet and thoughtful and while not the most talkative, she definitely was of the understanding sort. You know, the kind that you want to have nearby when you need a shoulder to cry on or something like that.

"You ready for this?" Bella asked. Her eyes were sparkling and wide, and her smile and joy was infectious.

"As ready as I'll ever be. I'll try not to trip, or mess up."

She laughed, "I'm the one you should be worried about; I'll probably trip on my way to the altar and take out the entire wedding party with me."

I took her hand and gave it a squeeze, "Nah, you'll be just fine."

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

The wedding went off without a hitch, and Bella looked absolutely beautiful. I had to admit that Alice did have good taste; Bella's dress was beautiful and elegant, but no one could really tear their eyes off of her. Even the vampires seemed to pale in comparison to how stunning she looked.

She and Edward couldn't take their eyes off each other, both were smiling to beat all hell and kept blushing. I was happy to see her happy.

And Jasper didn't leave my side the entire time.

Charlie and Bella were both awkward in the father and daughter dance, but that didn't surprise me too much; neither of them were great dancers, and hell, I wasn't either. Watching them dance next to Esme and Edward... there was no comparison; but Bella was still happy to be able to share the day with her parents. It still didn't change my mind about marriage in my case.

I was a little surprised that Setsune was there, but he seemed to be just as happy as anyone else about the marriage between the two people. He didn't seem alarmed at the fact that Bella was human and Edward a vampire, but then when I thought about his own revelation of the night before it made a lot of sense. I couldn't help but wonder about what could have brought him and his mate back here after having been banished because of what had happened.

I wondered whether or not we'd get to meet his mate, but that was something that could wait; I could be patient. But it was something that I was kind of excited about happening, it would be nice to know someone who had been through the same things that I had.

"Alice really out did herself this time," Charlie remarked as he sat down beside me. "I mean, I thought that she'd gone overboard with that graduation party, but this? It's just amazing."

"Bella got her dream wedding to her dream guy," I replied. "It's a lot better then what she originally said she wanted; you have Alice to thank for convincing her that this was a better idea and what she actually wanted."

Charlie rolled his eyes, "I'm glad that she changed her mind. I might not like this sort of thing, but it's definitely made her happy. And it's good to see Renée so happy about her daughter getting married too..." There was a forlorn tone to his voice as he mentioned his ex-wife; I guess the feelings still hadn't changed on his side, he still loved her.

It was kind of sweet.

Glancing over, I could see Renée laughing with Carlisle and Phil about something that one of them had said. I'd admit that I didn't know Bella's mother all that well, but she did very nice. We'd chosen not to let her in on the fact that Jasper and I were an item, but we weren't sure how successful we actually were because at times it seemed like she'd caught on. Not that it really mattered; she hadn't actually said anything.

A few curious glances were thrown our way, but none of Bella's school friends were actually sitting close enough to see that Jasper was holding my hand under the table. He wasn't as affectionate as he usually was with me, but that was okay since we didn't exactly want to broadcast that we were a couple.

I was pretty sure that we were succeeding pretty well; no one was giving us any dirty looks or throwing nasty insults our way. We were good.

As the reception continued on into the evening, the crowd thinned out a bit. Some of the more casual guests and acquaintances of the bride and groom left, leaving mostly Edward and Bella's inner circle of friends. That was why the newcomer stood out so much.

It wasn't just the fact that I didn't recognize her, but also the fact that she wasn't dressed in a dress like all the other female guests had been. To me, it looked a bit like a robe; it was a rich red color and embroidered with leafed branches with flowers on them and cranes and looked rather elaborate. As for the belt which held it closed, it was a simple dark almost burgundy red and tied in a weird knot at the back.

Her hair had been pulled back from her face into what looked like a bun. I couldn't place her ethnicity, but something about her was kind of familiar.

I couldn't help it; I pointed her out to Jasper, "Hey, do you know who that is?"

After all, it was entirely possible that she was some friend of the Cullens who I'd never met. She'd stopped to talk with Setsune near the banquet table, and I was pretty shocked when she wrapped her arms around him – and he even returned the gesture. I wondered if she was the mate that Setsune had been talking about the night before.

Jasper looked to where I was indicating and shook his head. "I have no idea."

No one else had seemed to notice the appearance of the mystery girl and I was dying to know who she was, so I grabbed Jasper's hand and tugged him in their direction, "Well come on then, let's go find out!"

Jasper went along with me, probably to keep me out of any potential trouble. As we got closer, I could tell that she wasn't Quileute; her facial features didn't quite fit the bill, but she looked a lot like Setsune.

She spotted us coming and beamed, and in the blink of an eye, she was in front of us. It was vampire speed, and it set Jasper a little at edge because he edged his way between me and her just slightly at the move. But luckily, she didn't notice, or at least didn't seem to.

Now that she was closer, I could see that she did look _**a lot**_ like Setsune – almost scarily so. Her eyes, though, were wide and a golden-flecked hazel color.

"You're Jacob right?" she asked, looking at me for confirmation – so I nodded. Then she turned to Jasper, "And you're Jasper?"

"Yes, and you are?"

"Kosuke," she replied, then added, "Otou-san was telling me about the two of you." I think that she noticed my confused expression, because she flushed a light pink before quickly clarifying, "Oh, um, sorry. Sometimes I forget myself... I meant my father."

That caught Jasper's attention, "Your father?"

"Yes, my father. You've met him." Her strange eyes flickered between the two of us, her eyes wide and her grin just as much. It was weird, because Setsune was usually pretty subdued, and yet she was like a maelstrom of energy – it kind of reminded me of Alice. She paused there and turned back to Setsune – who had come up right behind her as she'd been speaking – and let loose a stream of gibberish.

Setsune seemed to find what she was saying amusing, because he just chuckled before responding to her in the same gibberish. I had to guess that it was their native tongue.

I was sort of glad to see that Jasper was just as confused as I was. Although, he might have had a better idea of what was going on then me since it was entirely possible that he'd learned a little of whatever language it was that they were talking to each other in.

But Jasper did seem a little more at ease, so I felt calm and my stomach stopped doing flips. His arm tightened around my shoulders and I felt a wave of calm wash over me, combined with the affection and love that I was so used to. He gave me a warm smile as he looked down at me, casting around a quick glance before leaning down and pressing his lips to my temple very quickly and briefly.

Finally, it seemed that the two were done with their gibberish conversation, and Kosuke turned her full attention back to us after giving Setsune a dirty look.

"Sorry, I just assumed that you knew..." she muttered. "But apparently it's supposed to be a surprise."

"What is?" I asked.

She grinned and winked at me, "I can't tell you; it would ruin the surprise and I'd probably get in trouble with my parents if I ruined their fun."

"Don't mind Kosuke too much," Setsune interjected. "She is very easily excited."

Kosuke ignored Setsune, turning her attention back to me, pitching her voice low so that it wouldn't carry across the room, "You're expecting, right?"

Jeez! How many people knew and could tell that I was pregnant? It wasn't like I was advertising that fact, and even Jasper couldn't really tell and he spent so much time with me! It was really starting to bug me that these people could tell that I was pregnant right off the bat.

Before I could reply, Jasper cut in, "That's supposed to be kept a secret."

I watched as Kosuke blushed a deep red this time, "Oh. I'm sorry, it's just – I recognized the signs and um..."

"Kosuke."

Her head spun around, and she immediately averted her eyes as though realizing that she'd probably said too much. She muttered out something that I guessed was an apology in that language that I didn't recognize to Setsune before continuing to stare at her feet for several long moments as an awkward silence fell between all of us.

Setsune sighed, "My apologies; I mentioned to Kosuke that you pregnant, Jacob. I didn't expect her to be so forward about confirming it."

"It's alright," I replied. "I don't mind that she knows, as long as she doesn't tell anyone; I kind of don't want Bella to find out."

"Huh? Why not?" Kosuke asked, before slapping her hands over her mouth. She looked sheepish, "Eh, sorry... I shouldn't be asking so many questions."

I shrugged, "I kind of figure that Bella just might blow up if she figured out that I'd, you know, gotten pregnant; especially since I'm just sixteen. I don't think she's ever been very keen on kids, so I don't know how she'd take knowing that she's going to be an aunt in about nine months."

"We want to wait until we're sure that she can control herself before letting her near the child," Jasper replied, softly. I guessed that he figured that since the cat was out of the bag, he might as well answer her questions; even though Setsune seemed a little exasperated by her constant badgering. "And at least by then we'll have a better idea of what our child will be like."

"I'm sure that they'll be beautiful," Kosuke chirped, beaming. She quickly elbowed Setsune in the side and muttered darkly, "Don't stop me now; I want to know, and if you try and stop me I'll be telling okaa-san about it."

"In this matter, I'm sure that your mother would side with me," Setsune replied evenly, before he sighed again, "I should have known better than to try and keep you quiet; it's not in your nature – you're too much like your mother."

I finally let the question that had been eating at me out, "How do you two know each other?"

The two of them exchanged a knowing look before Kosuke turned back to me, grinning like an idiot. Setsune looked amused too, which just confused me even more. I felt Jasper's curiosity burning at me too.

Setsune chuckled, "I should know Kosuke very well; not only have I known her for nearly a century and a half, she's my daughter."

Oh, well that explained her resemblance to him and all – wait, _**WHAT?**_

"Wait.. you two are–"

"She's your daughter?" Jasper interrupted, his eyes burning as he looked between them.

Kosuke grinned and nodded, "Setsune is my father; you can't deny the familial resemblance."

At that moment, Jasper and I both looked at each. I was just as shocked as he was and wondering how the hell this was possible when it hit me like a giant ton of bricks. Now it all made sense. Why Setsune was in the area, why his mate had been banished and now called back; it all just clicked together in my mind at that moment and I realized just what the hell was going on.

"You're here because of me and because I got pregnant with Jasper's child," I replied, feeling a little light-headed at the thought. "Because your mate went through the exact same thing."

Jasper looked at me, eyes wide. It was a little comical; I'd never seen him look so shocked before – like he'd stuck a fork in the outlet, "Jake, what are you–"

"He's quite right," Setsune replied. "I told Jacob last night that my mate is of Quileute descent and was banished in the nineteenth century after we met. It wasn't just because of the fact that we were meant to be together, but also–"

"–because I'd been sneaking off to see him and I wound up pregnant." A new voice interrupted.

All of us looked over at the newcomer. Just like Kosuke, he was wearing a robe only his was a lot more subdued; it was a dark charcoal grey without any patterns embroidered on it and the belt was cream colored and tied in a simple knot. I hadn't realized before, but Kosuke was wearing wooden sandals and that Setsune was holding a similar pair in his hand. The newcomer wasn't wearing shoes, but accepted the ones that Setsune had been holding, letting the vampire help him put them on.

He wasn't nearly as tall as I was – his shoulder only came up to Setsune's armpit and Setsune was only 5'11– but in terms of looks, I could definitely tell that both of us came from the same tribe. I recognized some of his facial features too – he looked a bit like Sam, he had the same high cheekbones as him, and very similar hazel eyes. He'd probably passed those on to his daughter. But his skin was a little paler than mine; he probably hadn't spent as much time out in the sun.

The moment he'd joined us and was wearing shoes again, Setsune had him tucked under his arm and pressed a very quick kiss to his lips. He frowned at the vampire, and Setsune just smiled and shook his head, muttering something in gibberish as he did so.

"You're supposed to be speaking English, love," he chided. "We're not in Japan anymore; and as much as I love your endearments, I'm sure that their meaning would be lost on our audience."

I was so distracted by both his sudden appearance and the fact that he was obviously Quileute and how he probably understood me more than anyone else in my pack, that I didn't notice one detail about him that was pretty important.

Unlike Kosuke who's belt was wrapped around her waist, his was wrapped a little higher around the torso above what _**definitely**_ looked like a baby bump.

Setsune just shrugged at the chiding, "I doubt there's anyway even you could get me to change my ways koi."

"That's true," he remarked. "You're an old man in how set you are; it's a little scary sometimes."

"I'm not that old," Setsune replied with a frown. I'd admit, it was pretty cute to see the two of them bicker; they acted a bit like a cross between an old married couple and a pair of teenage lovers.

"Older than me," came the sharp retort. But then his face softened and he turned in Setsune's arm and reached up to pull him down for a kiss. "But that's fine, because I love you anyway."

"Good." I didn't imagine how Setsune's other hand traced over his mate's bump, which only drew attention to the fact that yep, he was definitely pregnant.

Kosuke was the one who interrupted the fluffy scene in front of us by clearing her throat and giving them dirty looks, "It seems I'm the one who has to apologize on behalf of my parents because they've apparently forgotten all sense of proper decorum."

"Oops."

"Kosuke, you should know better than to insult your mother," Setsune chided his daughter, but it was quite obvious that he was just teasing her. There was an amused glint in his eyes that I hadn't seen before in the short time that I'd known him.

They acted like a family; it was pretty heart-warming and made me feel more comfortable with my own situation. I'd always been confident that Jasper would be a great father but it was me that I'd had insecurities about being a mother. For one thing, I was male and I wasn't sure if our child would take that well since it was supposed to be impossible; not to mention how they'd deal with it if they ever had to interact more with human society. But seeing the three of them, I didn't think now that I had so much to worry about; if Setsune and his mate could manage with just the two of them, then we could too. We had the rest of Jasper's family to help.

"Now, now Setsune, Kosuke's right." His mate untangled himself from Setsune's arms just enough so that the vampire's hand settled into the small of his back. He held his hand out to me, "Sorry about forgetting to introduce myself; my name's Kieran. You're Jacob, right? Setsune mentioned you before."

"Yeah." It was a little surreal to be talking to someone who was way older than me but had been through the exact same thing – and going through it _**again**_ – but also someone who was from a generation that wasn't even alive anymore.

I kind of wondered what he thought of the pack as it was now, if he thought it was any different than it had been when he'd been a member. But I bit back all the questions that I wanted to ask; now really wasn't the time.

Kieran turned to Jasper, "And you're the lucky guy?"

"Jasper," he replied, accepting the other's hand. He seemed a little uncomfortable, but it might have had to do with some of the emotions that he was getting from the family standing in front of us. I offered him a small smile and felt his arm tighten around my waist, which did seem to help his comfort levels. "And yes, I suppose I am. Though, I am a little surprised to find out that this isn't a first time occurrence; from what I've seen, the elders were quite..."

"I wouldn't worry about them; they've always had sticks up their asses about anything different," Kieran replied, almost offhandedly. "Well, back when they banished me, I think they thought it was just a fluke or something, and that they'd gotten rid of the 'bad genes' that would have caused something like that to happen. They're pretty set in their ways."

"Tell me about it," I grumbled. I couldn't help it; I was thinking about my dad.

"I'm sure that your parents will come round," Kieran tried to reassure me. "Mine didn't, but that was because they were pretty horrified about the entire thing. I don't think it mattered to them that Setsune was... different from the others of his kind that we'd encountered, hell when I first met him he'd been hunting down another vampire."

Setsune growled, a low and threatening sound. "That was because he'd drawn too much attention to himself; killing indiscriminately and making a spectacle out of his abilities."

Jasper frowned at this; it seemed like he was trying to remember something. Then he spoke, "I heard something about that. I can't remember the details though, it was a long time ago."

That seemed to surprise both Setsune and Kieran, they both turned to Jasper with wide eyes. It was Setsune who recovered first, "Really? You were alive to remember that?"

"Not much of the details," Jasper replied. "It was something mentioned in a report in January about a week or so after the Emancipation Proclamation; there weren't many details included, but it apparently had a few of my superiors a little unnerved by the intelligence."

"You weren't one of us at the time?" Setsune asked.

I was curious too; Jasper never really did talk about his background no matter how much I prodded him on it. I think it might have had to do with him not wanting to worry me or cause stress, but I still wanted to and deserved to know. At least, I felt I did.

"No, I wasn't turned until later," Jasper replied.

"When were you turned?" I asked; I couldn't help it, I really wanted to know. I gave him a sharp look, "Come on, you can tell me."

"August, 1863." His voice was stiff; I'd been right all along, this wasn't a very comfortable subject for him. And holy crap, he was old; he was older than Edward and the rest of the Cullen family – excluding Carlisle of course.

Setsune was kind enough to offer a way out, "If it is something that you would rather not speak of, we will respect that. There are... things in all of our pasts, I believe, that we would prefer to forget and not drag out to open old scars."

A comforting smile was offered to me by Kieran, "All vampires are secretive; there are things that Setsune won't tell me either." He then addressed both of the vampires in our little party, "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to talk to Jacob. _**Alone**_."

Jasper tensed beside me.

"He won't do anything," I assured my lover. "And you can stay close enough that you can help if something goes wrong, which it won't."

"As you can see Jasper," he gestured at his stomach, "I'm not capable of doing anything at the moment. Your mate will be safe with me."

After some more convincing on my part, Jasper was finally mollified when I promised that I'd sit down and that he wouldn't be too far away just in case. I'm pretty sure that he knew deep down that Kieran wouldn't do anything to me, but it was just his instincts and his own concern over me that made him so hesitant. He didn't want to leave me vulnerable since shifting was out of the question given my own condition. Setsune and him stayed close, though, having their own quiet conversation well out of earshot of us.

"Do you need me anymore okaa-san?" Kosuke asked. "Because if not, I want to go and talk to people and get to know the rest of the family. And congratulate the bride and groom of course."

The smile Kieran gave her was warm as was his permission, "You're a grown woman now Kosuke, I don't think you need my permission to do anything anymore. But that reminds me, take this with you."

He handed her a plain looking wooden box that she delicately took from him, "You and otou-san bought them a present?"

"Well, originally Setsune intended it for Carlisle's mate since he was sure he'd have found his by now, but with the current celebrations, I think it would be more appropriate to give it to the young bride, don't you think?" Kieran explained.

"I can see the reasoning in that," Kosuke replied. "Anyway, I'll be off. There are some pretty cute guys here."

"Watch yourself Kosuke, you know how your father gets."

She gave her mother a one armed hug with a brilliant smile, "I'll be careful; I'm a big girl now, I can take care of myself."

Almost immediately after she left us, she was broad-sided by Alice who was quick to engage her in conversation; I could guess what it was about. I couldn't hear it though, but I did catch a question about who she was and why she was there and that she'd better not be a wedding crasher. I was actually surprised that none of the other Cullens had noticed Kosuke and Kieran's arrival, but a quick glance around the room told me why.

Of course Bella and Edward didn't have eyes for anyone but each other, they were too wrapped up in their own conversation at the main table. Charlie was chatting amicably with Carlisle about something or other, and Esme was entertaining a few other guests like Bella's mother and step-father. And as for Rosalie and Emmett, well Emmett was just lounging around and watching Rosalie while she was talking up a storm with the Denali coven.

"So, do you know how far along you are?" Kieran asked, his voice surprisingly hushed. But then I remembered that we were surrounded by vampires and humans who we probably didn't want to eavesdrop so much on our conversation; Jasper and Setsune were the exceptions, of course.

"About a month," I replied. "What about you?"

"Six and a half months," Kieran answered, stroking his stomach fondly. "You know, it took me this long to convince Setsune to have another child. The first time round was tricky, but you're much luckier than I was."

He smiled at my confusion, "You have modern medicine on your side; when I was pregnant with Kosuke, it was in the nineteenth century and we couldn't turn to anyone for help because not only am I male, but I was with child. If people found out, it was entirely likely that they would have killed me, or worse."

"Carlisle's still trying to figure out how this is going to work. I think he's banking on cutting them out instead of seeing whether or not I'd be able to birth them naturally; Jasper's definitely going to side with him," I explained. "He's petrified that it could kill me."

"Trust me, giving birth naturally is nothing to scoff at," Kieran replied softly, with a grimace. "It's nothing short of excruciatingly painful; Setsune won't talk about it much, but I know that I was screaming for death the entire time. It was worth it, of course, since I got my beautiful Kosuke after the entire ordeal... but after, Setsune swore that he'd never make me go through that again."

I couldn't imagine the pain that he was talking about, but I'd never complained about Carlisle's plan for me to get a c-section before, and now I was agreeing with it even more. Jasper had probably overheard that, which would make him even more set on that course of action than before; but this time I was going to be in full agreement with him.

"I was planning to go along with Carlisle's idea. I don't really like the idea of squeezing something out from between my legs."

"Good, I think that this visit is giving Setsune ideas," Kieran continued. "He wasn't too sure if Carlisle would be here, but he was definitely hoping that he would. He's probably hoping to spare me the agony of having to birth another child."

"Do you have any idea of what gender it is?" I was kind of curious; I hadn't given any thought to the potential gender of our child. Mostly because I didn't have a preference, but it was definitely something that I'd have to talk to Jasper about at some point down the line.

"Hm, I don't think Setsune has any preference, but..." He grinned. "I'm pretty sure that it'll be a boy."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, with Kosuke she was incredibly energetic, always kicking me and making sure that I knew she was there," Kieran explained. "But this one has been quite restful, only really kicking me a few times to let me know that he's still there. I think that he'll be much like his father; very calm and serene."

He smiled warmly, "But anyway, what I really wanted to talk to you about was see if you had any questions or concerns that you wanted to ask me since I obviously know what you're going through. It might be a little different – all pregnancies are – for you than for me, but I'm quite sure that I can be helpful."

"Am I going to start looking like a beached whale?" I'd seen pregnant women around before, and they always started looking rather large towards the end of their pregnancy which looked not only uncomfortable, but also kind of awkward. Not to mention that it would be impossible to hide the fact that I was pregnant by that point in time.

"I can't say for certain, but I doubt that you'll be as round as a woman is," Kieran replied. "Of course, it can depend, but while with Kosuke, I never looked like a beached whale, as you put it. I was still quite large, but it was never a problem."

"Huh. Well that's one thing that I don't have to worry about so much."

"And since you're very lucky to have a doctor in the family, I'm pretty sure that you'll be taken care of." Kieran shifted in his seat, moving to a more comfortable condition. "There's no real remedy for the back pain as you get farther along though."

"You guys going to stick around for a while?" It would be nice to have someone around who wasn't a vampire; not that I didn't like my adoptive family, but I'd like to have someone around who had a heartbeat and was alive. And understood what I was going through.

"Probably. We'll be here until I'm at full term definitely; Setsune didn't want me travelling at all in the first place, but I convinced him that it would be worth it. And he'll definitely want to catch up with Carlisle which might take a while, and also see about whether or not he can convince him to help me with the delivery."

I felt a little bit selfish about asking what I asked next, but it was something that I'd appreciate, "Do you think you'd mind staying until I've... had mine?"

Kieran grinned, "Is that an invitation?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Then yes, I will. I'll talk to Setsune about it, it won't be a problem." I believed him; Setsune obviously doted on him, so it was a good conclusion that Kieran would be able to convince him to stay without much of an argument.

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

Next chapter will be the last chapter. I'll be releasing it first and then I'll be posting the mix/soundtrack for this fic, so watch out for that in the next little while. Well, at least it's one more thing that I can scratch off my overly long to do list. Anyway, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter and liked the newest developments!

So remember, review or comment if you enjoyed this!

Twilight.


	15. Final Interlude :: find your way home

**Notes:** Whoa! I finally got here? Well yes, this is the end of our fabulous journey through my fic _The Poet and the Pendulum_. I hope you enjoy this last installment and thank you all for reading and staying with me for this long!  
**Part:** Final Interlude [ find your way home  
**Pairing:** Jasper/Jacob  
**Rating:** pg13  
**Words:** 4618 words  
**Disclaimer:** The _Twilight_ series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own the characters or anything but the strange circumstances that I slap them into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise. Anything unfamiliar you see is mine.

**Final Interlude  
. find your way home .**

_**One year later...**_

I would have to admit that it was... very comforting to have both Setsune and Kieran around. This was mostly because it was good to have people around who not only understood what Jake and I were going through, but had experience with it and could give us advice whenever needed. Kieran was there to help Jake with his pregnancy and Setsune was a godsend in keeping me sane – Jake is, unfortunately, very good at making me worry.

As much as I was grateful to have Carlisle around, sometimes he did nothing but add onto my unnecessarily large pile of fears. I knew that he just wanted us to be prepared, but I think there were times that I could have lived without some of the things he told us.

Jake did his best to reassure me, but I was still nervous as all hell. But I did appreciate his efforts, and I tried my best to try and keep them from him so that I could try to reassure him. I might not have been very successful – Jake can see through me easily – but it was the only thing that I felt I could do during the entire time that Jake was pregnant.

Carlisle had offered to tell us the gender of the child once he was able to, but Jake was insistent on being surprised. I decided to go along with him.

Two and a half months after they joined us, Kieran gave birth to his and Setsune's second child via a Caesarian section courtesy of Carlisle. After speaking with Setsune about how Kosuke had been delivered, I was very, very glad that Jake would be having one as well because I don't think I could have lived with myself if he'd had to go through the pain that Kieran had. I could feel the shadow of pain that he'd experienced having to help his mate through that – they'd had to go through it with just the two of him – and I could only imagine how much worse it had been.

Kieran seemed very relieved and happy that it was a boy; apparently he'd guessed that it would, and Setsune had bowed to letting him name their child if he was correct. And since he was, Kieran named their son Ran.

"It means orchid in Japanese," Setsune explained, he shrugged a little. "Kosuke's name means rising sun; I thought it would be rather symbolic, given her parentage."

Jake had fallen asleep while we were having this discussion, and he was using my lap as a pillow. I didn't mind at all; I enjoyed having him close to me even if we weren't being intimate. The warmth from his body was soaking into my thigh, and I tangled my fingers in his hair as I stroked his head. He hadn't been sleeping very well at night because of the baby, so I was just relieved to see him sleeping now.

The rest of my family had left, giving the four of us some much needed time alone. Kieran had just put Ran down for his nap, and was expecting him to wake up some time soon. I think mostly the reason everyone had left was so that the four of us could just speak without having them around.

As much as Jake's relationship with Rosalie had progressed, she still sometimes got carried away about his pregnancy and the child. We needed time to talk about it.

There was the small matter of names for our child, and whether or not we wanted to give the child his last name or mine.

Kieran was apparently of the same mindset as me, "So Jasper, have you two given any thought to what you want to name your child?"

I frowned; I had given it some thought, but I hadn't been able to talk to Jake about it. "If it's a girl... I would like to name her Katherine, after my sister."

"That's a nice name," Kieran remarked, moving closer to Setsune's side. "Have you and Jake talked about this?"

"Not really," I replied. "I don't think that it's something that has occurred to Jake yet, but it's something I mean to bring up."

Setsune shrugged, "Perhaps he already has an idea of what he wants to name them, but is just waiting for you to bring up the subject. I know that Kieran always knows what he wants to name our children, but he always just waits for me to ask him if he's thought about it before telling me."

"That's because you're no fun and you honestly have no idea what to name a child. If I let you have your way, Ran wouldn't have the name he does."

"I fail to see what's wrong with the name I chose."

"You wanted to name our son after one of the shoguns. That'll get him teased for having history loving parents or something."

"Tsunayoshi was perfectly acceptable–"

"It's too long; I don't want to have to be yelling such a long name around the house while chasing after our son so that he doesn't give the neighbours a heart attack."

Hearing the two of them bicker was rather amusing, I couldn't help but smile as they went back and forth; it would be interesting to see who won this particular bout of verbal warfare.

"Need I remind you koi that we have no neighbours; and you could always shorten his name... I see nothing wrong with calling him Tsuna or Yoshi for short."

"I still don't like the name and that's that; besides, it's a little late for us to change our minds. Kosuke's pretty set on his name remaining Ran; she's already set to work embroidering that sash she was planning on making for you."

Setsune sighed, "The things I go through to please you."

"You love me more because of it," Kieran replied, pressing a quick kiss to Setsune's temple before standing up to go and tend to Ran who had already started to fuss in his crib. "Now excuse me gentlemen, I have a fussy baby to see too. You talk about whatever floats your boat."

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

Even though Kieran had been to speak with Jake's family and the rest of his pack, they were still incredibly wary about what to expect from our child. No matter how much Kieran tried to reassure them, they still had their doubts about whether or not he or she would be a danger to them and the rest of the human population of Forks and La Push.

It was eventual that Kosuke would have to go down to assure them that hybrid children functioned perfectly fine and were of no danger to people.

She came back with some rather interesting news about a new dynamic in the pack and how... interesting life would be because of it.

Because of how Kosuke had been raised – largely isolated from human society because of her unique nature – she hadn't really been aware of whether or not some of the biological urges that she might have inherited from her parents would affect her. From her own experimenting, she knew that she wasn't venomous, but that blood best satiated her hunger; food could prolong how long she could go between feedings, but she noted that to do so required her to eat massive amounts of it because of her high metabolism.

Much to her shock, however, she learned that she wasn't as immune to her mother's heritage as she'd thought.

"I think I imprinted."

Setsune stared at her, in shock. I was, quite frankly, extremely shocked as well, and both of us were staring at her as though she'd just grown a second head. Kieran was upstairs, looking after Ran, but I had no doubt that he had heard what his daughter had said. Jacob was also upstairs, resting.

"What?"

"I went down to La Push, right? Because I wanted to talk to them and show them that I was perfectly fine and that Jasper and Jacob's child would turn out just fine – and um, a few of the pack met me when I arrived on the border, and I was looking at one of them and then it was just bam! I couldn't help it, I felt drawn to them immediately."

Setsune pinched his nose, face wrinkling up as he thought this through. "You... imprinted... on one of them?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did."

"Do you know who they are?" Setsune asked. "Have you spoken to them?"

"Um... yeah, we talked really briefly before I had to leave," Kosuke replied. "I told him that I'd like to meet him again – tonight, actually – and I introduced myself to him properly and mentioned you and okaa-san. He seems like a really nice guy; I think you'll like him."

"What's his name?" The tone in his voice let it be known that he was going to find out everything that he possibly could about the one that his daughter had imprinted on. I was prepared to answer questions as best I could, but I knew that Jacob would be fielding a lot of questions from the Japanese vampire.

"It's Paul."

Setsune raised an eyebrow at her; he must have heard something about him from Jacob.

"Really."

"Yes otou-san. Do you want to meet him? I could probably try and convince him to come here with me tonight so you and okaa-san can meet him. Would you like that?" Despite being over a century and a half old, it was obvious that Kosuke still very much valued her parents and their opinion of her. She just wanted their approval – even though Setsune's might have to be hard won.

There was of course the fact that Kosuke was Setsune's only daughter, so it was completely understandable that he would be a little overprotective of her. I had seen enough families over the years to know that this was a general trait of all fathers – ones like mine were an exception, though.

Eventually, Setsune caved to his daughter's wants, and agreed to meet with Paul that night just to make sure that he was, as she claimed, a nice guy and worthy of being with her.

Jake and I finally had our discussion on what we could possibly name our child; we debated a while, but Jake was pretty open to whatever ideas I had, despite the fact that he was the one who was carrying. Personally, I felt that he reserved the first choice and that I could offer suggestions.

"Seriously? The only name you want to use is Katherine? What if it's a boy?"

I frowned, "Why not name them for your father then? William would be a perfectly fine name."

"Really? You don't mind?" The way his eyes lit up... I couldn't help but smile back at him and nod.

"Of course not, however... you wouldn't object to – if it is a boy – his middle name being Emrys? For my grandfather?"

Jake seemed to mull that over for a few long minutes, then nodded his head in agreement to whatever it was that he'd decided on. "Yeah, William Emrys Whitlock is a good name for a boy."

That was a little surprising; we hadn't discussed whether or not the child would have my last name or his. I'd thought that since neither of us had talked about marriage – and Jake seemed to be a little against it in the first place – the child would take his last name, not mine. But by now I'd learned better than to argue with him since he was stubborn about things once he set his mind on them.

"You want to use my last name?"

"Yeah, I do; I like your last name better." Jake nodded, running a hand over his now very swollen stomach.

Placing my hand on it, I was rewarded with a sharp kick followed by a softer punch. Jake winced a little at the kick, but put his hand over mine and gave it a squeeze. Almost as though it could sense us, the child gave another kick, only this time a little more gentle. I couldn't help but smile; I was sure that they'd be quite the ball of energy and keep all of us on our toes.

"What if it's a girl?" Jake finally ventured. "What should we name here then? I know that you want to name her Katherine, is that the only name you've considered?"

I nodded, "It's for my younger sister... she... she passed away two months before I was turned; she was a few days shy of her eighteenth birthday."

"I never knew you had a sister." Jake frowned; I had been a little tight-lipped about my past around him, for a number of reasons. It wasn't so much that I was afraid of upsetting him – that was partly it, given his condition – but that it was just something that I didn't want to have to drag up again, I was still dealing with its consequences years after.

I smiled, "I had two, actually. Katherine was younger and Elizabeth was older – I was the middle child, much to my mother's relief."

Jake cocked his head to the side, "What happened to them?"

"My mother passed away from consumption when I was young, shortly after Katherine was born. Her pregnancy only exasperated her condition, so it was only logical... Katherine fell ill with it as well, unfortunately; and as for Elizabeth, she was the only one of us who managed to find herself a happy ending."

"You and Katherine were close?"

"Very. I've always wanted to name my daughter after her, if I ever had one," I replied. And it was the truth; even though I had never given much thought towards marrying and children, the few times that I had I always wanted a daughter. It was one way for me to help keep my sister's name alive. I knew that Jake had two sisters of his own, but from what little he had told me of them, he wasn't too close to them; and he'd lost his mother at a young age.

An idea came to me, "Why not name her Katherine Sara, then?"

That seemed to surprise Jake, because his eyes widened and he stared at me for a few seconds before responding, "You mean after my mom?"

"Why not? I'm sure that you're father would approve, and it gives you a way to keep your mother close. It's only fair that if we name her after my sister that we give her some of your heritage as well."

Jake mulled that over for a while.

"It's a good name."

**.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.**

I had never imagined that being a father could be both so exhilarating and also strangely tiring, even for someone like me. And I knew that Jake was, more often than not, exhausted to the point of collapse. It took quite a lot of convincing on my part, but eventually I managed to make him agree that he would sleep through the night while I would look after the children if they needed anything.

And yes, children. Jake and I were very shocked when Carlisle told us that we weren't having just the one child, but two – twins. The first was a girl, Katherine, and the second was a boy, William. Both of the names that we'd decided on got to see use. Carlisle was rather impressed when he went about filling out the paper work for their birth certificates – I wasn't surprised to see that he used the stereotypical doctor's handwriting on it so that Jake's name looked positively illegible.

Looking at the writing, you couldn't actually tell _**what**_ Jacob's name actually was. You'd probably only be able to discern it if you were actually looking for it, and even then it was difficult. But in any case, we were the twins' parents so it didn't really matter.

Carlisle could deal with the legalities of my and Jacob's new roles as parents, we were too busy dealing with our new family to really care.

Of the two, Katherine is the more energetic but she's also, strangely, the calmer of the two. She doesn't throw so many tantrums and doesn't cry very much. Whereas, William is definitely a 'mother's boy' – and Jake would kill me if he ever heard me calling him such, I know this – and can only be comforted by Jake taking him up and feeding him. Katherine doesn't so much care who holds her so much as she cares if she gets fed or not.

She doesn't like to sleep through the night, though.

Ran and her are close, if I leave her with him, the two of them are gurgling happily and batting at each other's hands. It's rather sweet. I'm not too worried about it developing into anything more as the years pass; they could be great friends or lovers and I think that I could accept it.

The pack is around a lot more too. It's a combination of the fact that even though Jake hasn't been _**completely**_ accepted back into his pack and tribe, a lot of them are still his friends and care about him deeply. I think they also wanted to see the children.

"Ow, Katy stop biting me!" Embry tried vainly to wiggle his finger free of the offending mouth. "That hurts you know!"

I couldn't help but laugh, bouncing William a little in my arms to keep him entertained, "Keep your fingers clear of her mouth; she'll bite anything that comes in range."

Finally managing to free his finger, Embry shot the tiny girl a glare, "Still it hurts like–"

"Embry, don't swear around the children; Jake will have my hide if you teach them _**anything**_ inappropriate before they're old enough."

Kieran grinned at that, "I don't think he'd appreciate it if they learned it even then."

I hadn't noticed the older shifter enter the room, but then I realized that he was holding a squirming Ran in his arms and gave him a smile. Setsune and I had been trading off for hunting trips so that at least one of us was home, and sometimes one of the pack would stop by as well. It was usually Embry, Quil, or Seth who stopped by, but I'd noticed that Paul was coming around more often.

Probably Kosuke's influence because I knew that he wasn't all that fond of us vampires. Still, there is no denying an imprint, and Kosuke was half-vampire so he had to accept that. Judging by how much time they spent together, I think it would take long until they were as inseparable as the rest of us.

It was just the four of us in the house, plus three rather restless babies. It was going to be a long night, but one well worth it. William was already dropping off to sleep, so I'd be putting him down in his crib in a few minutes only to have him wake up again in a few hours. That was how it was, and I was extremely glad that I didn't need sleep or else I would be completely deprived of it.

I wasn't too sure how human parents could cope with this, because it was stressful enough for me and I wasn't even human.

Embry was making faces at Katherine, making her giggle and wave her arms about trying to catch another finger or his face so she could cram it into her mouth. But Embry seemed to have learned his lesson – and the little bites on his fingers and hands would heal without scarring – from previous mistakes and was keeping his hands and fingers clear.

What was a little shocking to know was that both Katherine and William were born with sharp little fangs. I didn't know what to make of them until Kieran had explained that, as infants, hybrid children usually fed from their 'mother'. At least, that had been his experience with Kosuke. The shifter's body naturally did produce milk for the child, but because of their vampire nature...

It wasn't something we talked about.

But Carlisle had figured out a formula for the children shortly after Ran was born, so neither Jake nor Kieran had to go through that again. It smelled terrible to me, but none of the children seemed to mind it and took it eagerly.

Eventually William nodded off and I excused myself to go and tuck him back into his crib. Katherine had finally started to tire herself out and was yawning widely in Embry's arms, so he followed me upstairs to my and Jake's room which had also been turned into a nursery as well. Neither Jake or I wanted to have to trudge to the third floor if either Katherine or William woke in the middle of the night, so the crib and all of the necessary accessories had been set up in our room.

Alice had a field day redecorating, and quite a bit of my stuff had been moved into one of the rooms on the third floor to make room for everything.

William and Katherine had their own cribs, and I made sure that William was settled in his and that I'd pulled his blanket around him – a gift from Rose; I'd been a little surprised to learn that she had knitted it herself – before taking Katherine from Embry's arms.

Embry grinned and waved before very quietly leaving the room. Technically he wasn't supposed to have stayed with us so late, but Katherine had woken up shortly after I'd finally convinced Jake to turn in for the night. Embry had been kind enough to comfort the crying child while I made her formula and handed it to her. The two of them got on quite well, ignoring how Katherine loved to shove his fingers in her mouth and bite them; Embry didn't really appreciate being used as our daughter's... chew toy.

Katherine yawned and looked up at me, blinking her big blue eyes at me and gave a sleepy smile.

I was a little surprised, at first, that she had my eyes. In every other way she was the spitting image of Jake, from her dark hair to the shape of her eyes... it was like looking at a female, child version of my mate. Except for her pale skin, but I was sure that would take on more color as she grew older.

And William? He looked exactly like Jake, as in, he was almost a clone of him. I was sure that he wouldn't have any of my traits, but Jake had pointed out that his hair – still short and fuzzy and dark – looked to be a little blond at the ends. He joked that our son would have pudding treat hair when he grew up. Sadly, I don't think that I understood the joke very well.

Nonetheless... our daughter and son were perfect and beautiful and healthy. I still had my mate who was sleeping peacefully in our bed and I would be joining him shortly.

Rocking Katherine in my arms for a few minutes as I waited for her to close her brilliantly blue eyes, I talked to her, "You'll be as beautiful and charming as your namesake. I don't know what I'll do then, but I suppose I'll be chasing boys off... or maybe your brother will do that? Will he be overprotective and a knight in shining armour for you and later some young lady? I wonder..."

She gurgled happily and I smiled.

"I shouldn't worry about that now, I've still got years ahead of me that I can spend watching you and your brother grow, seeing how the two of you will face the world. But I know that you'll brave it and come out stronger, it won't destroy you and it won't hurt you as much as it did me, I'll make sure of that."

As her eyes fluttered closed, I looked over my shoulder at Jake, curled up on his side and sleeping peacefully and smiled, pressing a kiss to Katherine's forehead before laying her down in her crib and tucking her in gently.

"I'll make sure that you and your brother and your mother never have to fear the world as I did."

**FIN.**

A big thank you to everyone who has stuck with me all the way through this and to roadsidefury, because without her this fic would've died within its first few parts and also might not exist at all! And I want to thank each and every one of you readers who have read, reviewed, and poked and prodded me until I finished this. Without you guys I don't think I'd really have the motivation to finish anything, so thank you. I send you all my love. 3

The ending is open-ended. I don't think I'll come back to this universe, but I'll leave it as is just incase I do. I may write something focusing on Kieran and Setsune, showing their relationship developing, but I have a few other fics that need to be finished.

Thank you all!

And an **EXTREMELY LARGE WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE** thank you to both **avari_maethor** and **starry_nights88** for giving this fic an honorable mention at the TwiSlash Awards! You guys! Thank you so much I really don't know what to say! Thank you thank you thank you! I send you my love!


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